Les mouvements étudiants : rapports avec les jeunesses et la société/Students movements: relationships with youths and society

Should student movements be included in a journal issue devoted to the history of youth and youth issues? The various forms student militancy has taken over time have often been overlooked by both historians and sociologists specialized in this field. Lack of historical references and distancing has undermined efforts at analyzing as well as synthesizing this body of experience. With a view to filling this gap, this article seeks to excavate the causes and consequences of the long-term transformation of student movements and to highlight the specifics of the student situation within the larger social category of youth. Using the French situation as the basis for an international comparison, this articles explores the trends toward, and the obstacles to, the development of autonomous student movements and sheds new light on the role played by the democratization of higher education on both student movements and society at large.