Student Debt and Political Participation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Debt and Democracy

   • Sylvia Nissen

   Pages 1-17

3. Student Loans: An Awkward Subject

   • Sylvia Nissen

   Pages 19-40

4. Inequality and Participation

   • Sylvia Nissen

   Pages 41-61

5. Precautionary Politics

   • Sylvia Nissen

   Pages 63-79

6. Rethinking Debt for Students as Citizens

   • Sylvia Nissen

   Pages 81-93

7. Back Matter

   Pages 95-105

   PDF

This book examines how student debt informs the political action and participation of university students. The scale of student debt is unprecedented, particularly in the English-speaking world. In these democracies, debt has become an increasingly integral part of student life for many young people to enable participation in education and the wider economy. Using New Zealand as a case study, the author challenges existent assumptions about student attitudes towards loans by analysing how students speak about the impact of debt on themselves and their peers, including politically. Listening to these perspectives will provide a more nuanced insight into the underlying tensions and challenges of participating politically in a context of rising debt.

• student debt
• student experiences
• public dialogue
• student loan schemes
• appraisals of student debt
• variation in experience
• risk
• emotion
• private responsibility
• contribution of student debt to inequality
• economic inequality
• participation in public life
• political engagement
• precautionary principle
• political agency
• pragmatism
• repercussions of student loan debt
• student debt crisis
• university education
• tuition fees

• Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand

  Sylvia Nissen

Sylvia Nissen is a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Management at Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her research focuses on young people, politics and democracy in a context of environmental change. She has published a chapter in an international volume, Student Politics and Protest (2017, edited by Rachel Brooks), and contributed to the Journal of Urgent Writing (2017, forthcoming) and New Zealand Sociology (2016).

Policies and ethics