Different disciplinary approaches to research the variability of social

previous section(s), I still consider it useful for readers to highlight some of the main approaches used by scholars to study social and student movements. An enormous body of literature, many theories and a variety of concepts on the theoretical approaches to researching the variability of social movements have been published.⁵³ Jackie Smith and

53 See for example: Skcopoli 1979, Tilly 1981, 2004 and 2006, Dunn 1989, Marwick 1998, Day 2005, Flam and King 2005, McIntyre 2005, Klimke and Scharloth 2008, Klandermans and Roggerband 2010, Johnston 2011 and

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Tina Fetner consider social movement research to be by and large state-centric. They add that two notions have emerged from what is largely a state-centric body of social movement research: political contexts and mobilizing structures provide useful analytical tools that can help scholars analyze how states and other actors and structures shape the dynamics of social movements. These authors claim that political contexts affect both how people can try to influence political outcomes and how they can come together as a group (Smith and Fetner 2010; 21, 22). Smith and Fetner similarly conclude that state policies present critical components of the political context in which social movements take place. Other scholars focus more specifically on the socio-psychological ways in which social context influences individuals' behavior. They argue that there are four basic social psychological mechanisms (social identity, cognition, emotion, and motivation) that mediate between collective identity and collective action (Stekelenburg and Klandermans, 2010; 161). Another important approach to the study of social movements is the anthropological, according to which the analysis of social movements needs to take into account the cultural dimensions of social movements' identities, discourses, and actions. Authors promoting this approach argue that the anthropological emphasis on cultural dimensions contributed to clarifying the recurring debate between more structuralist and more agency-focused approaches to the contexts in which social movements take place. The analysis of a certain culture's manifold presence in social movements, the concrete incarnation of culture in social movements, and distinct "temporalities" of culture and protest actions have enabled researchers to explore the multifarious ways in which culture manifests itself in social movements and reflect on the consequences of the apparent mismatch between culture's "slow time" and movements'

"rapid time" (Salman and Assies 2010; 206, 219, 261). Social movement studies have not been developed as a specific area within political science. Although no specific social movement framework has been developed within this field, political scientists have introduced important ideas and theoretical concepts for the analysis of social movements, including "resource mobilization" and "political opportunity." However, most of the use and theoretical developments of those concepts have taken place outside the discipline, generally in sociology. Political science rather examines the role of social movements as players in the political arena and how collective actions may be shaped by political

2014, Bosi and Reiter 2014, Fahlenbrach, Klimke, and Scharloth. 2016, Jian et al. 2018, Della Porta and Diani 2006, Della Porta and Keating 2008, Della Porta 2016, etc.

29 opportunities. Indeed, political science touches on many aspects of social movements and the politics of protest and emphasizes the connections among organized actors and their interests, state structures, and public policies. Consequently, social movements are an area of inquiry within three major subfields of political science (American politics, comparative politics, and international relations), but the study of social movements is not a field in and of itself (Meyer and Lupo 2010; 139). Also, the historical context of any social movement presents a major consideration for its analysis. To understand why and how social movements emerge, it is necessary to understand the context. Dill and Aminzade remind us that, as a discipline, history is organized along lines of time and space, and claim that, when it comes to social movements, there are three historical methods for their research: close attention to detail and context, skeptical and judicious questioning of sources via internal and external criticism, and the use of narrative – the roles played by later and current narrative discourse (Dill and Aminzade, 2010; 272). Since the bulk of theories and concepts informing social movement research are either based on studies of the present or of the relatively recent past, deeper historical knowledge will always provide for a better understanding and thereby foster more contextualized theory. However, there is also a range of additional techniques which a researcher can use to approach the study of social movements, such as surveys, formal models, discourse analysis, in-depth interviews, participant observation, case studies, network analysis, other historical methods, protest event analysis, macro-organizational analysis, and comparative politics (Della Porta 2016).

Student movements have been examined and interpreted in a multiplicity of different ways. When scholars have assessed them from the micro-level perspective, some have linked student activism with the characteristics of youth, such as limited responsibility and the availability of free time (Allerbeck 1972), whereas others have adduced enthusiasm, idealism and exposure to new ideas (Altbach 1967), or even portrayed such students as spoiled, emotional rebels, irreverent, adventurist radicals unable to handle ambiguity and devoted to an ethic of absolute ends, etc. (Lipset 1976). But when student movements have been analyzed from macro-level perspectives, the interpretations of scholars have recognized the interactions between student movements, the spheres in which universities were embedded and the transformations of the states or the broader systems. Student protests have been seen to respond to historical changes (Martinelli and Cavalli 1972).

Student movements have often accompanied — and sometimes even started — cycles of

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protests, as was the case in Kosovo. That is why, as Delgado and Ross (2016, 144) noted,

"Students are often considered to be ‘catalysts' of political and social action or ‘barometers' of the social unrest and political tension accumulated in society." On many occasions, students quickly found allies within the political system and contributed to more general mobilizations, and, as I shall so, this applies to Kosovo.