Reading and rioting: student politics beyond the university

Abstract

Students are 'universally' subjected to debt and financialisation; a subjectivation which has most recently defined the University of Auckland student movement. This movement currently consists of two intersecting groups: Reclaim UoA and Petty and Vindictive. The logics of finance construct students as investors and enclose the commons of the university, necessitating the creation of an 'Undercommons'. The theory of the Undercommons (Harney and Moten, 2004) suggests we must look beyond the university for progressive alternatives. The student movement must find a 'universal' response to financialisation which does not subsume the 'particular' struggles of those who make up that movement.