What is it about?

The Chilean student movement has become a key-driven force for transforming politics and democracy to engender new forms of citizenship. Could student movements and youth grassroots politics inform new imaginaries of citizenship? This article examines youth grassroots politics, and how these new forms of being political have opened up the debate on what democracy and politics look like within a post-authoritarian society.

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Why is it important?

The significance of the Chilean student movement does not only refer to understanding new forms of citizenship but also to engendering new debates on the interlinkages between citizenship, rights, and popular democracy in the Global South. In so doing, this student movement has reclaimed education through politics and politics through education to contest the neoliberal consensus that has dominated the democratic transition within a post-authoritarian society.

Perspectives

I have been researching Latin American social movements from an interdisciplinary perspective, and I think the case of the Chilean student movement continues to provide key lessons to understand how social movements not only seek to transcend the global hegemony of neoliberalism but also how these movements seek to reimagine alternative forms of democracy, development, and politics. In writing this article, I have enjoyed approaching the question of citizenship engendered by this student movement, and what lessons could be learned from how citizenship, politics, and democracy are inextricably intertwined in struggles for free education in the region.

Ivette Hernandez Santibanez
University of Manchester

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This page is a summary of: Remapping youth activism and citizenship in Chile through the legacy of the Chilean student movement, Citizenship Teaching and Learning, September 2022, Intellect,
DOI: 10.1386/ctl_00098_1.
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