This research project uses the 2010/11 student protests in the UK as a case study to understand why certain individuals mobilise for forms of political participation and activism and why others do not. The student protests are ideal as a case study of participation and non-participation for a number of reasons. The UK Government’s proposal to treble the cap tuition fees for students in England represented an issue of widespread grievance for the student population, a grievance which was compounded for many by the Liberal Democrats’ decision to u-turn on its 2010 election campaign pledge. The student response featured large-scale regional and national demonstrations, as well as the formation of a network of simultaneous campus occupations across the UK, arguably presenting a greater scale and diversity of protest than had been seen for a generation. Despite these multiple participatory opportunities, however, student participation did not come close to matching the scale of opposition to trebled fees and university funding cuts as articulated in surveys. This raises fundamental questions about the social and political differences between participants and non-participants. Using original survey data of students from 22 UK universities, and 56 in-depth interviews with students from 6 universities, this research examines social and political patterns and relations between high, medium and low-cost/risk participants, and non-participants. Taking into account the idea of the university campus as a network of actors, the research posits that networks may preclude as well as facilitate participation. The research studies in detail the formation and maintenance of student activism networks – including their collective identifications and dis-identifications. Conversely, the study also looks at the social networks of non-participants, and how these may help to socially produce and sustain non-participation at an agency level. Finally, the research considers whether the protests against fees and cuts should be seen as a unified movement, and whether student attitudes taken together reveal a broadly-identifiable ‘participatory ideal’.

(EN) Civil society is made up of committed individuals, non-governmental non-profit organizations, their employees, volunteers, and other supporters, as well as relations among these actors. Civil society activities include community development, advancement of leisure and professional interests, services to vulnerable groups, as well as efforts to intervene in the political process and to support certain legislation and systemic change. This work focuses on the latter, i.e. the ways how civil society actors influence the political process. In the introductory chapter I present an overview of the current research of civil society and political activism in the Czech Republic and other post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In this chapter, I identify five central propositions that can be formulated on the basis of existing scientific discussion and I subject them to a critical assessment. In addition, I argue that against the backdrop of the discussion, two streams of literature can be distinguished which differ in their assessment of civil society's quality in Central and Eastern Europe. I try to clarify the reasons for these contradictions. In the second chapter I offer an overview of social movements theories, thus completing the theoretical basis for the empirical part of this...

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.