Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
This chapter tackles the issue of the strategic decision over a movement protest frame in a recent case of mobilization taking place in Italy. The decision of the protest frame is a key cultural weapon in the hands of the activists to build up the collective identity of their social group and, thus, to trigger an effective and large mobilization. This is especially true in the case of student uprisings, as the socio-political condition of students is never clearly defined. As illustrated in this chapter, students engaging in protest politics tend often to face several strategic dilemmas concerning their political objectives, identity, and position in the broader sector of social movements. This represented the case of the Italian generations of students involved in the protests of 1968 and 1990, as it was for the student generation recently mobilized. Although this protest cycle lasted several years (from 2008 to 2012), it had two protest peaks (or, more specifically, two distinct protest campaigns) concurrently with the implementation of Law 133 in 2008 (cuts in public higher education) and Law 240 in 2010 (managerial restructuring of university governance). Although the year 2010 witnessed both a widespread worsening of the life conditions of Italians due to the economic recession and the implementation of austerity measures by the government, my hypothesis is that the student activists attempted to broaden their movement ‘constituency’ and make alliances with other social actors (such as precarious workers, researchers, public and private employees) to build a broader and more effective opposition against the Italian government and its neoliberal policies. In the chapter, I argue that the shift in the protest framing between 2008 and 2010, from a student to a general scope, was a decision taken by the student leadership and organizations in the effort to make their struggle more effective.