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You’re Either a Flower in the Dustbin or the Spark That Lights a Fire: On Precarity and Student Protests

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Academic Labour, Unemployment and Global Higher Education

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical University Studies ((PCU))

Abstract

If you were to ask a call centre worker in Glasgow, a cab driver in Berlin, and a bar worker in London what Johnny Rotten and Bruce Springsteen have in common, they would probably give some half-hearted, half-guessed answer containing the words punk and no future. Then all of them would rant about how shit The Boss is, and how they do not understand what Springsteen finds so great about New Jersey.

But who has ever seen a riot whose front ranks were made up of the elderly?

Alain Badiou, The Rebirth of History (2012, p. 22)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK

    Mark Bergfeld

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  1. Mark Bergfeld
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. English Department, London, United Kingdom

    Suman Gupta

  2. Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Jernej Habjan

  3. University of Zagreb, Department of English, Munich, Germany

    Hrvoje Tutek

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Bergfeld, M. (2016). You’re Either a Flower in the Dustbin or the Spark That Lights a Fire: On Precarity and Student Protests. In: Gupta, S., Habjan, J., Tutek, H. (eds) Academic Labour, Unemployment and Global Higher Education. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49324-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49324-8_12

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-49323-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49324-8

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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