Abstract
Contrary to what is commonly established in the literature, Chile’s student movement became influential once it had detached itself from political parties and governments. Adopting a contentious politics approach, this chapter analyzes this empirical puzzle by highlighting three processes that the student movement has experienced since the 1990s: strengthening, political detachment, and influence on the policymaking of education. To support our claims, we present a narrative that relies on the abundant scholarly literature on the Chilean student movement and on data collected in various research projects undertaken by us. We emphasize the critical junctures of 2001, 2006, and 2011–2012, where major student protest cycles took place. Finally, we also try to make sense of the decline of student protests after 2011.
We are grateful for the following grants that made this research possible: ANID/FONDAP nº 15130009, ANID/Fondecyt Regular nº 1160308 and nº 1200190, and ANID/Fondecyt de Iniciación n° 11180890.
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Somma, N.M., Donoso, S. (2021). Chile’s Student Movement: Strong, Detached, Influential—And Declining?. In: Cini, L., della Porta, D., Guzmán-Concha, C. (eds) Student Movements in Late Neoliberalism. Social Movements and Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75754-0_10
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