University of FreiburgInstitute of SociologySeminar: Methods of Cultural Anthropology and Geography Summer Term 2014 Supervision: Judith Schlehe

“Transnational Spaces and Globalised Encounters at the University of Freiburg”

Student Cultures in the Humanities -

Political Activism among International Students

group members:

Andrea Cangialosi

Joana Hofstetter

Madalena Meinecke

Mi Thich

Talita Figueiredo

Tolga Öztürk

Outline

Introduction 1

I Methodology 2

II Analysis of Findings: Interviews, Participant Observations & Survey Responses7

III Theoretical Analysis 12

IV Conclusion 14

Bibliography

Appendix

Introduction

University campuses host students from a large number of countries, blending different cultures of

students coming from foreign countries with the home culture. Politics are an example of this

cultural divergence. Political interest and political knowledge of international students are worth to

analyse in the conditions of the new environment. Our motivation behind this research is the effects

of the new political environment on the students already politically involved in their home

countries. The University of Freiburg is home to twenty-four thousand students which more than

10% are international students coming from over one hundred countries. Some of these

international students study for one or two semester with an exchange programme, some of them

study for a longer period. This diversity creates a lively political culture both in the campus, and

also overflown in the public spaces of the city. The curriculum of the Global Studies Masters

Programme at University of Freiburg includes a methodological component of cultural

anthropology and geography. Our work is conducted to explore the political activism of

international students in Freiburg. Our research question is “How are international students

politically active in Freiburg?”

Our original intention before data collection process was to understand how students coming from

different political cultures adapt in a new political environment. Especially for students coming

from other European Union countries carry linked political issues or even organisations, which may

ease international students to participate political events. Moreover, as an effect of globalisation,

political agendas of countries from different regions of the world to be more relevant, keeping in

mind the global discourses of environment and leftist groups.

We conducted different both quantitative and qualitative research methods. With the help of

participant observation method, we gained an intimate familiarity with the international students

taking part in the political organisations in the university and in the city. Our semi-structured and

narrative interviews focused on motivations for political activism, aspects of political activities, and

corresponding challenges. In addition to these qualitative methods, we conducted an online survey

to understand the links between the student backgrounds and their participation in the political

organisations. A thematic analysis revealed that barriers included language and access to

information.

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I Methodology

To get a first picture of the field and initial contacts to potential interview partners, we used the

snowball system (cf. Beardsworth and Keil, 1992), asking fellow students, dorm mates and friends

whether they knew politically active/interested international students. So called gatekeepers (cf.

Jupp, 2006), in our case employees and members of different political organisation, provided

necessary information and contacts to distribute our survey. Furthermore, the use of the venue-

based TSS (time-space sampling) – participating in specific events or certain locations where we

expected to meet international students – helped us to find potential interviewees, as well as events

for a promising field observations.

Moreover, we made use of an expert interview, which aim is it to examine a person’s special

knowledge and experiences resulting from actions, responsibilities and/or obligations of a specific

functional status, within a group/organisation/institution. An “expert” has privileged access to

information about groups of persons or decision processes (Meuser, Michael; Nagel, Ulrike,

1991:442f.). We consider our interview partner as an expert, due to his profession and obligation as

a politically active person in Freiburg. The interviewee is a German student working in a

professional political educational organization, preparing for the International Conference on

Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Leipzig, Germany. His role as a

facilitator involved bringing together practitioners, activists and scientists to cover thematic threads

about emancipatory politics and participation institutions.

This interview gave us an idea how an expert defines “political activism”, where and why

international students are involved (or not) in political activities in Freiburg and last but not least,

what might be hindering international students involvement. In section “Semi-structured Interview”

we will explain how we conducted such interviews.

Methodological Framework

The data collection followed the methodological principles of Grounded Theory. Grounded Theory

describes a research procedure which mainly encompasses qualitative methods. These methods

“consist of systematic, yet flexible guidelines for collecting and analyzing qualitative data to

construct theory from the data themselves” (Charmaz, 2014:1). Data is therefore examined in an

inductive manner and any theory constructed in – as the name says – grounded in it. At the same

time, the research process is characterised by a permanent interplay between data collection,

analysis and theory formulation. Early analyses of data can help to constantly adjust the research

and gear its development towards the research question. Results are strengthened through

methodological triangulation which refers to the usage of multiple methods during research. This

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increases the validity of the research, as it allows a combination and comparison of data collected

on the same issue, by approaching it from different angles.

Data collection

There are many different qualitative, as well as, quantitative ways to collect data. For the purpose of

this research project, we used three different methods: participant field observation, online

questionnaire survey, and semi-structured expert and narrative interview. In the following, we will

briefly describe the different methods and how we applied them to our project.

Participant Field Observations

Participant field observation is a qualitative data collecting method with roots in the traditional

ethnographic and cultural anthropological research. The objective is to help the research to learn

about the perspective held by the study population. The researcher immerses himself actively into

the field in order to observe and record information of the subject group (Bernard, 2006:342). Due

to the time constraint, we followed the concept of PRA (Participatory Rapid Assessment) (Bernard,

2006:352). We created a checklist of data and questions we needed to collect for our project. We

used our contacts to enter the field and decided to take the role of participant observer, who

interacts more than a so called complete observer, yet does not for example become a member of

the observed group (complete participant) (Bernard, 2006:347). We attended one University

political club, a globally renown street event (Christopher Street Day) and tried to partake in a party

meeting (Attac).

It resulted fundamental to have a clear understanding what one wants to observe before entering the

field. We distributed different tasks to different members of our research group, in this way we were

able to develop several indicators of political activity from different standpoints. Much of our data

is qualitative. With this method we were able to take photos and field notes about how people

interact, what are the characteristic of dialoguing, what role have the individual participant, what

concentration of issues are debate in the meetings (global/local commentaries), etc.?

Survey

Surveys are fixed sets of questions that can be administered by paper and pencil, by an interviewer

who follows a strict script or via a Web form. The method of questionnaire survey is used to gather

information about the characteristics, behaviours and/or attitudes of a specific group (McLafferty,

2008:87). We used the survey to explore students’ perception and motivation, as well as,

understanding of political activity.

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The first step was to develop a survey design, which is designed to reach relevant answers for our

research question, whilst consist of a clear and easy structure (McLafferty, 2008:88). The

questionnaire, a set of standardized questions included factual question, is to provide general

information such as age, gender, subject of study and country of origin and opinion questions, to

assess attitude and preferences of the target group. Moreover, it was structured by fixed-response

question (limited set of response) and open-ended questions (own response) (McLafferty, 2008:89).

Our questionnaire focused on questions about the political activities in Freiburg, but also included

items referring to students’ political activities in their home country, so that we could later compare

those two fields. After a short peer-review pilot test and feedback round, the online survey was

circulated amongst international student groups mailing lists – thanks to our gatekeeper access and

collaboration.

Semi-structured Interviews

Semi-structured interview is an overarching term to describe a vast array of interviewing forms,

commonly used to collect qualitative data by setting up a conversation that allows an interviewee to

talk about his/her opinions on a particular subject (cf. Mason, 2004). The structure is flexible and

fluid, consequently the interviewee has an influential position in terms of time and scope of the

interview. To meet these criteria, we used, as an extension of our survey, a semi-structured interview

guideline (Marotzki, 2003:14). The guideline helped us to remember those topics and questions,

which seem to be relevant for our research project. We used open-ended some directly suggested

(“Tell me about...”) and some arose naturally during the interview (“You mentioned …, can you tell

me more?”). A semi-structured interview is characterised by initial questions and an active follow-

up strategy. As a researcher, one has to be spontaneous and flexible.

We used two different but comparable templates for the interviews: one for the politically active

students in Freiburg, the other for the students who were politically active in their home countries –

but not in Freiburg. The main idea behind this method is to gain elaborated information about their

activism or lack thereof. We designed the guidelines for politically active students in five main

topics: 1) activities, general information about the activities that interviewee has taken part in; 2)

triggers for participation, motivation behind partaking these activities; 3) role, contribution of the

interviewee as a member or participator in the organisation; 4) subjectivity, opinions and insight

about the organisation and the role; 5) prior experience, involvement of the interviewee in the

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political organisations before coming to Freiburg. Guideline for the students who are not politically

active in Freiburg, but used to be in their home countries follows the same rationale. Because of

their lack of experience in Freiburg spaces, questions were focused on their prior experience. The

topics used in the other guideline were modified to understand the barriers for participation. For

example, instead of asking the triggers for participation in an organisation in Freiburg, we

questioned about obstacles they faced when attempting. We included specifying, probing, and

interpreting questions in order to bridge between the topics, or to make interviewee to expatiate on

interesting points (see appendix: Interview Guideline).

Semi-structured Narrative Interview

The aim of a semi-structured narrative interview is to understand the respondent's perspective rather

than make generalisations about behaviour (Hopf, 2005:349). Why did we chose this method?

Taking in account that our research project examines a highly sensitive area, we found it necessary

to be able to observe the interviewee emotional response. In comparison to the questionnaire, the

narrative interview gives a more detailed and sounded insight about the political involvement of

international students for many reasons.

First, owing to the narrative-generating questions, the interviewee is encourage to reconstruct his

experiences, actions, occasions and knowledge in order to provide a very detailed and logical

answers (Hopf, 2005:350). Second, the questions are asked in a manner that stimulates the

interviewee to mobilize his memories and narrate freely. Therefore, unexpected dimensions of

answers tend not to be prevented (Marotzki, 2003:14). During this phase of interviewing, the

interviewer does not intervene, but takes the role of an attentive listener, by supporting his interview

partner with back-up gestures and non-direct brief comments (Hopf, 2005:350). Third, in the end of

the interview, the researcher has the possibility to ask so called “follow-up questions” to lead the

interviewee to talk about subjects and issues, which are relevant for the research questions

(Rosenthal, 2008:127).

Moreover, the guideline, which was used for all interviews, secures, to a certain extent,

comparability (Marotzki, 2003:14). We conducted five narrative interviews with international

students.

Coding

The first step for the data analysis of semi-structured interviews is the transcript of the relevant parts

of the interviews. On the basis of the transcript we developed coding categories to analysis our

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collected data. We followed the coding criteria of the example which was presented to us by the

lectures in the course (see appendix: Coding).

Survey analysis

To analyse our online questionnaire we used the analytics provided by “Google Forms” itself, for

grasping the broader picture, then went through each entry with a spreadsheet processor, for

statistical functions – namely Microsoft Excel.

Limitation and Reflection

In order to assess the quality of our findings it is necessary to meet certain criteria such as

reliability, replicability and validity. Nevertheless, those criteria are not always feasible, especially

not in qualitative researches. That is why the focus should be moved to further criteria: credibility,

transferability, dependability and conformability. It is notable that, due to a very rough time

constraint and other limitations, we cannot affirm to have met those criteria with our research

project.

In the beginning of our research process we encountered a number of obstacles. As we entered the

field looking for participants to interview or observe we experienced great difficulties to find

international students of the humanities who were politically active. Our first data acquisitions

hence took place without any participants who actually fit our criteria: we designed our first

interview as an expert interview to gain an assessment and further access to our field. Furthermore,

we inquired about the political participation of international students at a political university club,

which did not have any international members itself. Based on the findings from these undertakings

we decided to broaden our research focus by looking at general political activities of any

international student and dropped the narrow focus on the university, the city of Freiburg and the

field of humanities. Small meetings proved to be hard to access or rather unfavourable to observing

visitors. In accordance with our supervisor we thus shifted our participant observations to more

public sites, which immediately delivered better results.

The first results and feedbacks we received also led to changes in our questionnaire and interview

guidelines as some items showed to be inapt to answer our research question or since our style of

asking had been too suggestive in the beginning. This indicated the problem of positionality we

were facing: as we represent students of the humanities ourselves, we of course had an idea about

political activism among students and the obstacles to it before we entered the field. During our

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research process we realized that our participants often had very different ideas and that it is most

interesting to get an insight into their concepts. So even though researchers can never take

themselves and their views out of the research entirely, we revised our guidelines and tried to give

the participants as much freedom as possible to express themselves. This produced interesting

results and significantly expanded our definitions of political activism.

In the end, we were quite surprised by the high response rates of questionnaires and by the diversity

of participants. Compared to the difficulties we had with face-to-face interactions this could reveal

something about the sensibility of our topic. Political opinions and involvement can be a very

private or ambiguous issue about which people don’t want to or cannot talk openly. Our anonymous

online survey seemed to be an opportunity for these students to still participate.

II Analysis of Findings: Interviews, Participant Observations & Survey Responses

Interviews

Our research approach involved conducting 5 semi-structured interviews: 1 expert and 4 narratives.

Via our analysis technique we extracted and coded interviews into 3 main categories. (Please refer

to the appendix for full interview transcriptions with designated codes.)

Categories: Political Activism

To access the field, we made use of our expert interview. From his previous political experiences,

we received a preliminary definition of “political activism” with his provision that: “...being active

means being part of a group where you meet with people regularly and where you take

responsibility and organize” (2: 68-72). This premise became crucial in the proceeding research

process because ‘activism’ became the first coding category.

Furthermore, from our interview samples, we utilized the interview with a French masters level

university student from the applied political science department who provided us with the

international student’s perspective in Freiburg. From this dialogue, we allocated codes signifying

“support, awareness, involvement” which frequented his remarks. In particular, his explanation for

the extent of political activism is expressed here: “in France I am creating the political

environment, but when I am here, I am supporting it. I think I could be legitimate to organize it here

also, but that I don’t want to be too much involved because I don’t have too much personal interest”

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(1: 94-100). Another interviewee states: “to be politically active, it’s fight for the ideals and to try to

make things better” (4: 41-45). Thus, these codes reflect common trends structuring the landscape

of political activism.

Category: Barriers to Political Activism

Another category was determined based on the limitations raised in political activism from the

respective interview samples. Our expert informant enriched our understanding of the obstacles

preventing political activism from his university political club activities as a Green Party member.

The main barriers he observed for international students concerned language, new geographic and

cultural context, and the lack of information access since he explains that:

“...a new context is difficult to confront new authorities. If you’re not used to them. You would first of all try to understand

the cultural grid you are in then. On the other hand, it could be understood that it’s arrogant and disrespectful if you come

from somewhere else and you go against it. Then you destroy any cultural experience if you don’t give a good impression ”

(2: 126-133).

As a result, this allowed us to code using terms such as “unfamiliarity, sensitivity, different context,

expressing” by detecting similar trends amongst our narrative interviews. These hindrances are

further articulated as an international student states:

“it is linked to some frustrating moments that you can’t articulate yourself as you would like to. That you can’t join a

debate as you would like to. That someone else is already changing the topic even if you would like to still say something

but you are not so quick to react to this. So this is not easy and it is something you really have to want and desire political

activism so that being active represents a value for you and that you understand yourself as a political actor and part of

your identity. This is not the case. You won’t carry on these or get yourself in all these struggles” (3: 15-17).

Category: Identity and Involvement

We also specified another category defining the extent of political activism based on the

respondents’ explanation for the relationship between political involvement and their identities. As

in the French student’s interview, he explains that “these demonstrations are in German, but there is

a possibility for everyone to come and to understand what the demonstration is about, but that is

right that I am feeling included, but I am a part of the demonstration but I am something, someone

else, I am the other” (1: 56-68) where there is some recognized feeling of inclusion, but there’s the

notion of the other. This sentiment of the outsider role as an international student is also expressed

by other interviewees.

Furthermore, this category signifies the connection behind the extent of political engagement efforts

and the influence of national identity and supra-national identity with the European Union. The

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French student states:

“I’m also here engaged because I know that what I am doing here is the same in France. So that means we are all in the

same political union – European Union – and in fact, I am leaving my citizenship. I am thinking that my citizenship here is

the same as in my country. I know that I’m politically engaged that when I am saying something it means the same

panorama. I think I am much more interested in European subjects when I am in this country. And when I am in France, I

am more focused on international contexts. But I am also thinking that when I am saying something politically here, I am

speaking with European people and I am speaking to and with European people” (1: 94-100).

Thus, with our coding terms of “citizenship, European Union, link, struggle”, we can comparatively

analyze other interviews, for example:

“…I try to get the point about what is going on and see my part in this. You could but it’s not that you could make directly

the link. Sometimes the struggles are similar and if you have been active in your home country, you could also have that

activism as part of your identity and has a value for you so you would perhaps even more try to get the link to these

struggles that you have at home and those that are existing here in the new context” (2: 170-177).

These statements signify the level of activism and linkage of struggles within the political arena to

student identities.

Participatory Observation

Our observation field sites included: a Freiburg University political club, an Attac meeting and the

Christopher Street Day parade (CSD).

Accessing the institutionalized space of Freiburg University was challenging and indicative of

international students experiences. Our group took part in a political discussion round-table, but we

were denied further participatory observations in a reading circle given the possible negative

impacts of our presence. With our follow-up, our findings also confirmed a minimal proportion of

international students except for the isolated case of a short-term ERASMUS student with German

speaking proficiency. In the case of Attac, our strategy of reaching the organization meeting after

looking up the event information online failed because no meeting took place nor could we find

accurate information. This context of outdated details reveals the minimal availability of

information provided to foreigners.

However, accessing public spaces contributed significantly to our research. The annual June 28th

CSD Parade is a European LGBT demonstration celebration counterpart of “Gay Pride”parades,

and in this setting, a higher number of international students were accounted. This assessment was

evident through sign displays and posters written in English with implicit international political

content or significance.

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Survey

The platform used is “Google Forms”, and the span of results covers June 24th to July 11th. The

initial 175 results to our 10 items survey were then harmonised and filtered down to 170. The main

reasons behind this pruning were mock entries and German nationals, falling out of our sample of

international students.

The main results from the survey are:

1) quantitative broad trend analysis resulting from statistical measures;

2) some interesting custom text entries that double-crossed the other qualitative findings.

The sample population is composed of 62% female respondents – plus one “indifferent” – and

almost equal share in terms of academic field: “Humanities” (51,7%), “Natural sciences” (46,4%) –

plus interdisciplinary. The duration of staying is for large majority (80%) of long-term length,

defined as more than one semester.

To the question “How interested are you in politics?”, in a 4-steps scale from “not all” to “very

much”, respondents answered: 31% “not very”, 44% “quite” and 22% “very much”. Yet, only 15%

would consider themselves active in Freiburg. It is in the following graphs (see figure 1 and 2)

shown in which activities respondents were involved, and what kind of obstacles they encountered.

Figure 1: types of activism

The composition of online activities (31%) reveals the preferred accessibility of virtual spaces over

attendance at conferences and workshops (17%).

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Figure 2: main obstacles to activism

The language barrier (20%) is just one side, together with informational challenge (16%) and

identitarian question (16%). This is also reflected in the comparison regarding the home country:

62% being more politically active than in Freiburg and 22% just as much.

Since the survey was structured with both multiple choices and open or further “Other” blank

spaces, some of the respondents provide rich insights. An analysis of the first question regarding the

nationality assessment shows that beyond the 60 or more countries, three “EU” entries were stated.

This designation parallels a trend echoed within in-depth interviews.

Regarding barrier restraints, the respondents delved further into the options given. Of importance

were the following ones (emphasis added):

• «Language obstacle; not enough time; not informed enough; events in uni are not promoted at all.. + don't know

"politically active" people to go along with» (#162)

• «[...] not enough understanding about how things work (DE is complicated), relatively short duration of stay (not worth

investing the time), I speak the language but am still always an outsider» (#38)

• «As a non-German (and non EU citizen) I have no political power here. Activism is moot without the ability to vote.»

(#145)

#162 is consistent with the perception of institutionalized space as not so conducive, the important

role of social-networking and language not being the only or most relevant barrier, as in #38 which

connect with the identity issue and #145 that defines activism around national and European

supranational politics. When speaking about the kinds of activities, two answers stood out as (#128)

«took part in a creative political action» and (#100) «Randomly yelling 11 billion dollars after a

football match and people celebrating a German victory :P». This highlighted the need for more

grounded definitions of political activism as assessed in the interviews as well.

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III Theoretical Analysis

Our research provided us with interesting results but also gave us the opportunity to apply some

fundamental theories that could offer us a better understanding about the political manifestations

practiced by students in a foreign country. Our investigation allowed us to approach the concepts of

“transcultural spaces” and “glocalization”, the latter being developed by the sociologist Roland

Robertson. Furthermore, we will apply the idea of “public sphere” from Habermas to explain the

limitations of the international students to access organized spaces of political manifestations.

After observing carefully the results of our research, we could identify the existence of a

transcultural space or, in other words, the creation of a third space established across different

cultures. This dues to the fact that international students have already their own political ideas and

behaviors, influenced by their own original localities. However, once they are in a different space,

they challenge themselves to adapt to this new local reality. Nevertheless, as we mentioned already,

these students find themselves having to deal with a lot of barriers. Consequently, it becomes

difficult to them to integrate deeply in the local political sphere. In response to that, what happens is

the creation of a space in between, that is not a space of action like it was in their home countries

but also nor a space where they can be fully integrated as they were citizens of Freiburg. To sum up,

what we could observe was the formation of a hybrid and original space where international

students exercise their political activism based in the mix of their academic, social and political

backgrounds as well as these notions in a new context.

The discussion about transcultural spaces led us to the interpretation of another concept capable of

enlightening our results. We realized that the term “glocalization” could fit well as an explanation to

the results of our surveys, for example, or the participant observation made in the gay pride parade.

Despite the fact that this theory illustrates a much more complex and abstract behavior of

individuals, for the moment we will only use it to interpret these two spheres of our research.

Although the concept of “Glocalization” was firstly developed as a business strategy in the Japanese

society, the sociologist Roland Robertson was the responsible to expand this term in the field of the

social sciences. The term “glocalization” could be perceived as a neologism resulted from the mix

of the words “globalization” and “localization” but, for a better understanding, in Robertson’s own

words, glocalization would be “the interpenetration of the universalization of particularization and

the particularization of universalism ” (Robertson, 1992).

In our research, we could perceive how the local and the global sphere are always mutually

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constituting relationship and influencing each other. Applying this concept to our investigation, one

can observe that, for example, the gay pride parade could be explained as an indication of

glocalization. According to the website ehow.com, the first gay parade was done in the United

States in the 70’s. In the present time, we could observe that, although this political movement

emerged in a certain local context, after a while these practice spread far beyond that original

locality and started to take place in a larger spatial arena. Therefore, assumed a global context.

Moreover, our participant observation let us detect the presence of a high number of international

students in this space. Regarding this fact, we could apprehend that political manifestations within a

global context are easily reachable by international students than political activism based on a very

specific and local condition.

Furthermore, after analyse the results of our online surveys, some data called our attention. When

asked about nationality, two participants identify themselves as being from Europe Union. These

answers, in the interpretation of our results, play a relevant role because give us the chance of once

more apply the concept of glocalization. Although these individuals are located in a specific local,

they perceive themselves as being part of a place where the boundaries were expanded and that

share some “global” ideas, practices and institutions, i.e, the Europe Union.

In addition, our findings about the accessibility of political spaces for international students can be

linked to Habermas' concept of the public sphere (Habermas, 1991). To Habermas, this is a space

where public opinions are generated and shaped. The public sphere is not necessarily spatial, but

rather an imaginary or virtual community “made up of private people gathered together as a public

and articulating the needs of society with the state.” (ibid.: 176) Habermas has a very ideal

perspective on the public sphere: he claims all participants within this space to be equal. A person's

gender, class or ethnicity are not regarded relevant, only convincing arguments count. Clubs,

groupings and organizations formed by citizens can stimulate and influence public debate

(Habermas, 1992). One could therefore assume, that political clubs and associations inside and

outside of the University of Freiburg could play this role and provide an open space for political

discourse to everyone alike. However, our results indicate that the concept of the public sphere has

to be viewed critically. As international students struggle to gain access to these spaces it seems as if

a person's social or cultural background still remains a crucial factor to inclusion. The high number

of returns of the questionnaire could point out that the virtual and anonymous space we created

through our online survey rather offered people equal conditions to participate. In our case, the

survey seems to be closer to the ideal characteristics of a public sphere than the personal meetings.

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IV Conclusion

International students are not as politically active as compared to their home countries. Most of the

students do not take part in the political campaigns or organisations. They are politically interested

and they have willing to be more active. However, there are barriers excluding these students from

the local political environment. Our expectation before starting the data collection process was

languages being the most prominent barrier for international students. Considering the increasing

number of English taught programmes in the university, German dominated political organisations

would be the striking result. This assumption proved to be correct. However, we encountered

different barriers as a result of our research, which are as important as language. Particularly,

international students, who stay or plan to stay in Freiburg for a shorter period of time, feels

uninformed about the organisation manners. More precisely, to understand how things work and

what is expected from the participants are unknown for many of them. Even the students with the

adequate language skills feels as an outsider in the meetings. Exclusion of the international students

mainly lays in the cultural incompatibility. This leads many students who are interested in the

politics, have experience in the home country, and eager to partake in a political activity in some

way in Freiburg to see these political organisations are not worth investing the time, especially if

they stay for a shorter period. Another important barrier is the difference between the university

spaces and the public spaces. As our sampling is the international students from humanities

department, political activities within the campus area as lively as the public area of the city.

International students in the university are tend to partake in the meetings, events, and

organisations, which are held in non-campus spaces. The reason behind this differentiation is the

reachability of the organisations.

Most of the international students are politically involved through online activism. This leads the

discussion of political activism in the definitional sense. We came across with a wide range of

definition and understanding of the term. This differentiation is because of the perception and the

involvement in the politics. While some students sees interest and knowledge accumulation as a

necessary measure for the one to be called as politically active, others defines it through physical

presence and with respect to the role in the group. During the data analysis, we were reluctant to

bring out a definition and then apply on the results, because of this reason. We decided to leave the

understanding of the term to the participants.

As a result, political involvement of international student in Freiburg faces many obstacles. Most of

the exchange students don't look for an active political life because of their limited time. For the

students, who spend more time in the city face different barriers, since their language abilities are

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tend to be better and they have more knowledge about the issues, organisations, venues. Besides all,

most of the international students are politically active in online. Social media and online petitions

are seen as a mode of activity.

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Appendix

Coding Categories

Interview 1

Interview 2

Interview 3 and 4

Interview: Line Number

Interview Extracts Condensed Meaning Code units Sub-category

Category

1: 8-11 1: 25-27 1: 35-36 1: 48-52 1: 94-100 1: 83-85 2: 24-31

“I think I am always questioning whether I can support these things. For example, there is a demonstration in the city and what can I support, what can I bring to these causes. For example, a demonstration, yeah, I can do that, but a friend told me about the possibility to pick up food in a supermarket to avoid waste. And I thought about what I can do, how can I support this, and the answer is me. But clearly I was in Germany and it was not my country, it was not the environment I knew, so I had to learn what can I do here.” “It is a personal political activity. I met a lot of street art that I found. To be aware of my environment. I collected and shared it. That was the aim.” “I still am involved with the political association. So I am trying to know what they are doing, I am also involved in their organization, I am involved in the political association - the young ecologist. It’s a political association, not a political party. I am very involved, what we are doing, what we should do, what actions we have to organize, I am also making designs, like fliers and posters. I was in Berlin this year for an internship in the ministry and I was involved in campaigns, political campaigns in Marseilles, so I made a lot from Berlin for example “I’m also here engaged because I know that what I am doing here is the same in France. So that means we are all in the same political union - European Union- and in fact, I am leaving my citizenship. I am thinking that my citizenship here is the same as in my country. I know that I’m politically engaged that when I am saying something it means the same panorama. I think I am much more interested in European subjects when I am in this country. And when I am in France, I am more focused on international contexts. But I am also thinking that when I am saying something politically here, I am speaking with European people and I am speaking to and with European people.” “As I already said, I am creating the political environment, but when I am here, I am supporting it. I think I could legitimate to organize it here also, but that I don’t want to be too much involved because I don’t have too much personal interest.” “Here I am involved and I want to be involved because some things must be supported and some things are right and I can do something important but yeah. I think that I don’t have the same approach but I also see that subjects are the same here. So that what I am doing here is exactly the same aim, there is the same explanation about why I am doing something here.” At the moment, I would say that I’m not politically active in the typical way of being active in association and bringing forward something to that context. I would see my political activism in a professional context like doing educational work and then trying to put my experiences about participatory methodology in

There are various support measures of political causes. His move from France to Germany and the reality of an unfamiliar setting and position. What he terms his personal political activity and motivation. His approach with defining involvement with political association and organization. What terms of engagement entails and how the role of citizenship contributes to his political engagement. He refers to the European people, subjects, and context. His perception of what he supports and creates a political environment. His political involvement parallels the same approach, subject, aims, and explanation of what he’s doing. The difference in political activism via a professional context or not.

Code: demonstrations, food, possibility, support, environment, here. Code: street art, awareness Code: involved, political associations, campaigns Code: political union, European citizenship, contexts, subjects, European people Code: creating, supporting, involvement, interest Code: same approach, aims, subjects, explanations. Code: typical, experiences, engagement, thinking,

Context Political Activity Expression

Opportunities Political activity Political activity

Activism

2: 68-72 3: 13-14 4: 41-45

there and that’s engagement that you do just for some conventional thinking mode. How can I enable people to think about their situation and enable them to get active and live and debate as a real exchange between everyone who is present and not as just hearing / listening to someone while remaining passive. Being active means being part of a group where you meet with people regularly and where you take responsibility and organize something. I would say the core political engagement would be non-commercial. I wouldn’t even say that its commercial what I’m doing at the moment but it’s a professional context because it’s paid. That’s the point. There’s always a difference between political engagement and paid political activity. I try to be politically active when I find the issue important for me. So, I don’t know if I would be active if I had more knowledge in the local politics.

How can I explain it? To be politically active, it’s fight for the ideals and to try to make things better. It’s a bit naive description.

There’s always a difference between political engagement and paid political activity. Interest in political activity is dependent on self-interest. Fight for ideals and make changes.

exchange Code: take responsibility, organizing, commercial, professional, paid Code: importance, knowledge. Code: fight, ideals, change.

Political activity Knowledge Ideals

1: 4-6 1: 25-27 1: 77-81 1: 117-125 2: 126-133

“Through relationships and I would say with social networks where I am. With friends. If I am in the street, I give more attention to specific things I see. For example, posters, or also stickers. That’s the first thing. I would say that facebook is a really important way for me to get information.” “But clearly I was in Germany and it was not my country, it was not the environment I knew, so I had to learn what can I do here. What are the codes of this society. Who I am.“ “Basically it is not getting me more politically engaged but it is helping me understand them, for example, I just choose just because of personal interests: the main course of this semester is about social justice and this very theoretical folds are applied knowledge and they help me understand. “I would say that in France, we are really making clear. If you want to meet people who are politically active, it is more easier than here. We know who is who. If you want, it is more simple. So it is easier to meet someone and ask to come to their organization. It is quite simple, I would say. And there is also very a political organization which is organizing every week a debate on a subject in France. So they are German student but the information is circulating very easier than here. So it is more simple to receive the information to receive what’s going on because it is not so big and it is more focused on political sciences.” As I said, the whole situation and workload of coming along was that a new context that difficulty to confront new authorities. If you’re not used to them. You would first of all try to understand the cultural grid you are in then. On the other hand, it could be understood that it’s arrogant and disrespectful if you come from somewhere else and you go against it. Then you destroy any cultural experience if you don’t give a good impression. This would be the extreme.

The surrounding environment is critical in access to information about political activities. There are cultural differences in countries and societies. Personal interest matters in other political activity. It makes a difference who you know in order to be politically involved and the information circulation must be accessible to the student body. There’s a difficulty in the new context and new authorities and a cultural grid of how to behave in such settings.

Code: relationships, Facebook. Code: society, codes Code: time, knowledge, understand, interest. Code: university, school, few people, easier to meet, more simple. Code: context, authorities, cultural grid, disrespect.

Access to information Personal Motivation Culture Culture

Barriers to Getting Engaged

2: 137-142 3: 15-17 3: 18-28 4: 36-40 4: 63-66 4: 69-73

There are protest confrontations and the will to disagree. How far you’re willing to go for getting active in a political process. It’s a time-consuming and something you have to do additionally and if you have much to do for university, then you won’t jump in much more. You don’t want to get much more busy. Or it also makes a difference if you come to a much more relaxed country where people just come to enjoy their stay. It is linked to some frustrating moments that you can’t articulate yourself as you would like to. That you can’t join a debate as you would like to. That someone else is already changing the topic even if you would like to still say something but you are not so quick to react to this. So this is not easy and it is something you really have to want it and desire political activism so that being active represents a value for you and that you understand yourself as a political actor and part of your identity. This is not the case. You won’t carry on these or get yourself in all these struggles. Language barrier is important for me. Being politically active is really sensitive, and you cant really run into something when you don't understand. First, you don't understand because of the language. And second, you don't understand because you are not familiar with the environment.

Political activism for me is taking action in a field you think are important or are somehow banned by authorities. For me is doing action by yourself, or to be active in organising something. Or taking part in action that is organised by someone else, being part of organisations and acting groups. And, the other thing for me is political activism is a lot of times it is important only for people who are doing it. And I think if you find something really important to change something, you need to make your statement clear and easy to understand for big groups, for public. So, I think it is really important to write for a papers, or to support real politicians, like the common politicians. Because, that for me how to make a change. Because, a lot of time people when they are politically active, it is like hundred people on the street or hundred people signing a petition and if they are not clear and if they are close in a group they are not changing I think. So, I think it has multiple layers and multiple levels of political activism.

This year I am feeling like old. How can I explain it? I don't have the patience like I had last year, you know. Maybe because I am in another context and I find a lot difficult to link with the language. I mean, I am feeling less concerned about politics in Freiburg. I dont have the same tools that I had in France. For example, in France I can use a lot more of language tools. So much more. I mean, I receive so much more information. It’s like very intense here.

Because, the fact that I cannot handle English or German. It’s a frustration. And I feel like as free as French in expressing myself and understanding others. I mean, the an organisation, the communication is the main… The language barrier. Also, I have to work for my studies and I don't have much time for organisation. I try learn a language. So much stuff to do. They spoke really good English, but they didn't make any effort to speak English in the meetings. I felt like neglected. This was my first participation in Greenpeace, and bad time. All

Becoming involved is hard because it’s time-consuming and your motivation might be skewed if you’re in a new country. The inability to express yourself or become involved in political struggles is frustrating. Language barrier matters due to sensitivity and unfamiliarity with the environment. Political action means taking action through organizing or making statements clear and being involved in a public setting. The context can also be hard because there’s no interest or patience and the will to relearn how to engage here. Language is hard because there’s too much to do.

Code: time-consuming, busy Code: frustrating, articulation, debates, reaction, value, struggles Code: sensitive, barrier, environment, familiar Code: organized, groups, public, change, multiple levels and layers Code: patience, context, link, difficulty, concern, language tools, information Code: expressing, understanding, communication, effort

Personal Incomprehension Different environment Levels of activism Changing contexts Language

about behaviour they were cold. It was not the spirit that I hoped to find, you know. I mean, the ideals and how they welcome us, it was very impolite. My first experience was Greenpeace. That was too disappointing.

1: 30-31 1: 56-68 1: 94-100 2: 170-177 4: 52-54

“Connection with people and as I say, I know the country, I know the people, I know what I can do, I know who I am.” “These demonstrations are in German, but there is a possibility for everyone to come and to understand what the demonstration is about, but that is right that I am feeling included, but I am a part of the demonstration but I am something, someone else, I am the other.” “I’m also here engaged because I know that what I am doing here is the same in France. So that means we are all in the same political union - European Union- and in fact, I am leaving my citizenship. I am thinking that my citizenship here is the same as in my country. I know that I’m politically engaged that when I am saying something it means the same panorama. I think I am much more interested in European subjects when I am in this country. And when I am in France, I am more focused on international contexts. But I am also thinking that when I am saying something politically here, I am speaking with European people and I am speaking to and with European people.” …so I try to get the point about what is going on and see my part in this. You could but it’s not that you could make directly the link. Sometimes the struggles are similar and if you have been active in your home country, you could also have that activism as part of your identity and has a value for you so you would perhaps even more try to get the link to these struggles that you have at home and those that are existing here in the new context. I stopped everything because I was kind of disgusted because this organisation, it’s kind of European nationalism. So, I mean, I didn't find myself, of course I would like to join the party to know how it function inside. Just, by curiosity. I mean, my activism was because I was curious.I was passionated by the idea of Europe at the time.

It’s important whether he knows the country and people. There is a feeling of inclusion, but there’s the notion of the other. Engagement matters because there’s a supranational identity and the same issues arise across different nations. The link is that struggles are similar here compared to the home country so activism has been be consistently a part of your identity. Curiosity has been a part of his interest and therefore identity.

Code: know, aim, choose, same, understand. Code: supporting, creating, connection, part, decision. Code: transnational politics, European people, citizenship. Code: part, link, struggles, identity, value Code: European nationalism, curiosity, passion

Social Awareness European Union Struggle and Linking Values European nationalism

Identity

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“Transnational Spaces and Globalised Encounters at the University of Freiburg”

Student cultures in the humanities. How are international students within University of Freiburg studies involved in political activities of student groups located in

Freiburg?

Interview Conducted by Andrea and Mi on July 9, 2014.

Interviewee Data Nationality? French Sex? Male Age? 22 What do you study? “Political science, applied.” Since when are you in Freiburg and for how long?

“3 months, but 2 years ago, I was here for two semesters. It’s a French-German partnership between two universities. SciencesPo

in Provence and here.”

Methodological Reflections

Sporadic pauses throughout the dialogue because the interviewee isn’t completely articulate in English and self-conscious about

his word-choices.

Coding Categories

Category: Activism Category: Barriers to Getting Engaged

Category: Identity

Sub-category 1: Context Code: location Code: country Code: European subjects Code: European contexts

Sub-category 2: Political Activity Code: demonstrations Code: street art Code: food Code: political associations

Sub-category 3: Expression Code: collected Code: sharing Code: trying Code: still am involved

Sub-category 4: Opportunities Code: possibilities Code: linked Code: free Code: same

Sub-category 1: Access to information Code: Facebook Code: relationships

Sub-category 2: Personal Motivation Code: time Code: interest

Sub-category 3: Culture Code: society Code: codes Code: making clear

Sub-category 1: Social Code: supporting Code: creating Code: connection Code: part Code: decision

Sub-category 2: Awareness Code: know Code: aim Code: I am Code: choose Code: same Code: understand

Sub-category 3: France,Marseille Code: design posters Code: flyers

Sub-category 4: Germany,Freiburg Code: knowledge

Sub-category 5: European Union Code: transnational politics Code: European people Code: Citizenship

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Interview Transcript

Q: “So you have been here for 3 months and then you will be here for another three months?” 1

A: “I will stay for another two semesters. I am finishing my bachelors.” 2

Q: “And when you are here, how did you get involved in the political activities? What’s the way 3

you first do so?” 4

A: “Through relationships and I would say with social networks where I am. With friends. If 5

I am in the street, I give more attention to specific things I see. For example, posters, or also 6

stickers. That’s the first thing. I would say that facebook is a really important way for me to get 7

information.” 8

Q: “What’s the motivation behind your interest? What’s in your mind when you look at these 9

things?” 10

A: “I think I am always questioning whether I can support these things. For example, there is a 11

demonstration in the city and what can I support, what can I bring to these causes. For example, a 12

demonstration, yeah, I can do that, but a friend told me about the possibility to pick up food in a 13

supermarket to avoid waste. And I thought about what I can do, how can I support this, and the 14

answer is me.” 15

Q: “Is this the leben-- project? They did a service in Italy and my sister told me about it and that I 16

had to do it.” 17

A: “Yeah, and I have to do this in France” 18

Q: “What is this?” 19

A: “It’s a project and the main is to pick up food to avoid waste, food which had to be thrown 20

away because it wasn’t sellable. So we are coming to bring this food to places where everyone can 21

take it for themselves.” 22

Q: “So what is the first thing you got involved with these kind of political activities here in 23

Freiburg?” 24

A: “This is the first time. The first year I did not make a lot of political activity.” 25

Q: “Any reason for that?” 26

A: “I was young but I was already politically engaged, and it was a reflection time. I was thinking 27

what can I do? I was not much active.” 28

Q: “So it was more something coming from you then something: for example, the language barrier 29

or the time constraint or was it your choice?? 30

A: “There is a cultural barrier, I would say, not a language barrier. Because I am not 31

ashamed to speak in another language I don’t really know. But clearly I was in Germany 32

and it was not my country, it was not the environment I knew, so I had to learn what can I 33

do here. What are the codes of this society. Who I am. So it was a reflection time. But I think 34

if someone came to me to tell me you can do something, you can come with me and you can be 35

active and you have to come because it is funny, I may. It would have made it easier.” 36

Q: “So that didn’t happen the first time, but it happened now this time through your connection to 37

people? 38

A: “Connection with people and as I say, I know the country, I know the people, I know what I 39

can do, I know who I am.” 40

Q: “What kind of activities are you involved here?” 41

A: “I went to demonstrations here. These things, you mean, political activities.” 42

Q: “Related.” 43

A: “It is a personal political activity. I met a lot of street art that I found. To be aware of my 44

environment. I collected and shared it. That was the aim.” 45

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Q: “Was it on streetartfreiburg the website?” 46

A: “Just when I am in the city and I make pictures of things i see in the street. But it is kind of a 47

process to know what I am.” 48

Q: “Do you share them with your friends or publicly?” 49

A: “Facebook, not a lot, but just a couple of time. One photo per. Other political activities, sure, 50

very important one, I am here in Freiburg I am still involved with other political activities that I 51

have in France. I am trying to know what is happening in France and I’m trying to know a political 52

party and I am trying to be involved with the organization. I am here in Freiburg but I am still 53

involved in causes in France.” 54

Q: “Is it your city, the one you study in?” 55

A: “Yes, it’s a little city which is very near my city. I come from Marseilles. It’s 30 minutes by 56

train. 57

How are you still involved back? Are you writing stuff or staying updated?” 58

Q: ““I still am involved with the political association. So I am trying to know what they are doing, 59

I am also involved in their organization, I am involved in the political association - the young 60

ecologist. It’s a political association, not a political party. I am very involved, what we are doing, 61

what we should do, what actions we have to organize ,I am also making designs, like fliers and 62

posters. I was in Berlin this year for an internship in the ministry and I was involved in campaigns, 63

political campaigns in Marseilles, so I made a lot from Berlin for example. 64

Q: “And would you give us an idea of how frequent you’re politically involved? How many 65

times?” 66

A: “Not more than 1 per month, I would say I have been here 4 months and I made 3 67

demonstrations.” 68

Q: “Do you find there are any challenges with going to these demonstrations?” 69

A: “These demonstrations are in German, but there is a possibility for everyone to come and 70

to understand what the demonstration is about, but that is right that I am feeling included, 71

but I am a part of the demonstration but I am something, someone else, I am the other.” 72

Q: “This Lebens--- started very recently. When did it start?” 73

A: “The beginning was for 2 months when I arrived this time in Freiburg but it has been existing 74

since more. It is not new.” 75

Q: “What kind of role did you take inside this organization?” 76

A: “I did not take any organization role, I just help to get the food and share it. But we have the 77

possibility and I think it is quite simple to be involved in the organization. I did not need more than 78

2 weeks to know how it works -- the hierarchy, and how it is working, to make a decision, to be a 79

part of the decision, it is democratic, so if I were willing to take part, I could. But I don’t” 80

Q: “Do you think you’ll become more involved over time as your stay in Freiburg increases?” 81

A: “Sure yeah, I had a project to be involved with the young ecologist organization which is here. 82

But if I had time, I did not take it. I had time this week, but I had to do something else.” 83

Q: “What are the names of the two organizations? Like the ones in France?” 84

A: “It is, but they are linked. There’s ze ecologist” 85

Q: “And again it’s linked to a party?” 86

A: “It was linked, it was an organ to a party, and they retake. There is a very link -- a bond -- with 87

the parties. But we are free to decide, but we are free to do everything we want. And here, I think 88

that this organization is.” 89

Q: “With your studies in the political studies department, do you find that you’re more informed, 90

as in the faculty, or professors, give you more?” 91

4 / 5

A: “Basically it is not getting me more politically engaged but it is helping me understand 92

them, for example, I just choose just because of personal interests: the main course of this semester 93

is about social justice and this very theoretical folds are applied knowledge and they help me 94

understand. But I also choose another subject: it was political campaigns, so we are speaking about 95

strategy and burning issues. Basically it is not helping me to be aware of my political environment 96

here, but I choose a very specific course, which is a link.” 97

Q: “If you would compare your political activities here to at home, how do you see the challenges, 98

the obstacles?” 99

A: “When I am at home, I am more engaged and involved with the organization. As I already 100

said, I am creating the political environment, but when I am here, I am supporting it. I think 101

I could legitimate to organize it here also, but that I don’t want to be too much involved 102

because I don’t have too much personal interest.” 103

Q: “So would you say you’re engaged in the political activities here because it is part of you, part 104

of what you did already in France, but are there causes related to Germany that interest you or is 105

it just the political activities?” 106

A: Here I am involved and I want to be involved because some things must be supported and 107

some things are right and I can do something important but yeah. I think that I don’t have 108

the same approach but I also see that subjects are the same here. So that what I am doing 109

here is exactly the same aim, there is the same explanation about why I am doing something 110

here.” 111

Q: “When you take part of the political life, do you feel yourself as being part of an international 112

student group or do you view yourself as an individual? Which kind of identity or membership do 113

you connect to? 114

A: “I’m also here engaged because I know that what I am doing here is the same in France. 115

So that means we are all in the same political union - European Union- and in fact, I am 116

leaving my citizenship. I am thinking that my citizenship here is the same as in my country. 117

I know that I’m politically engaged that when I am saying something it means the same 118

panorama. I think I am much more interested in European subjects when I am in this 119

country. And when I am in France, I am more focused on international contexts. But I am 120

also thinking that when I am saying something politically here, I am speaking with European 121

people and I am speaking to and with European people.” 122

Q: “I saw there were some projects/demonstrations connected to Blockupy, is there some events 123

that relate to a bigger arena, broader than Europe?” 124

A: “Sure, I took part in the blockupy demonstration, some of them. And for sure, I am not politic 125

only because of national European interests but I think I am sharing things with other people that 126

we can speak about politically so we have to include all the people in civilizations, that we are 127

sharing something together, we are sharing our money, we are sharing a lot of things, and we have 128

to share something.I think there is everyday that I think about a transnational politic. And 129

what I will do later. I don’t know if I will stay in France or stay in Germany or go anywhere in the 130

world. I think I will be confronted with transnational Europe. For example, European campaign 131

and votes. 132

Q: “Do you think there is an active effort from what you saw in Freiburg, Germany, or from what 133

you saw in Marseilles, France, an active effort to include international students, to include 134

international voices? 135

A: “Yes, we are receiving newsletter every two weeks. The universities are interconnected. The 136

people are most of the time international students with international students. But there are few 137

5 / 5

efforts to connect international students with political organizations. I can’t say that I didn’t receive 138

an invitation from the, these European young organizations, I forget the name, but we are all the 139

same thing. We are all international students making politics in Europe, but there is not a lot of 140

people.” 141

Q: “Either here or in France?” 142

A: “In France, I am in not a university, it’s more of a school -- a university school so we are all 143

together. There are very few people, there are only 200 people, there are very few international 144

people, I would say that in France, we are really making clear. If you want to meet people 145

who are politically active, it is more easier than here. We know who is who. If you want, it is 146

more simple. So it is easier to meet someone and ask to come to their organization. It is quite 147

simple, I would say. And there is also very a political organization which is organizing every 148

week a debate on a subject in France. And there is very few cases where international 149

students took place, and most of them are students from our partnership, so they are German 150

student but the information is circulating very easier than here. So it is more simple to receive 151

the information to receive what’s going on because it is not so big and it is more focused on 152

political sciences.” 153

SECTION: INTRODUCTION 1

Interviewer: We are interested in finding out if international students are engaged 2 in political activities in Freiburg. So we also want to find out if you as an expert -- 3

we hear that you’re politically active, we can come back to this later -- and if you’ve 4 already had experiences with international students and what do you think about 5 their political activities in Freiburg. We have some questions for you and about 6 your work and what you are doing. 7 It would be good, but I would not consider myself as an expert because I’m not an 8

international student. 9 10 Interviewer: We will ask you some questions about what you’re doing and where 11 you are active and how you see your involvement as a student and then maybe you 12 can tell us about your experiences. For example, if you’ve met other international 13

students during these activities and what your impressions of international 14 students. Or how they can be involved. Not specific knowledges, but just 15

impressions. 16

17 What is possible is to talk about my stay in Bordeau, France. Here in Freiburg I have only 18 recently been politically active in a reading circle and now I think of my exchange with 19

international students. There’s another student in the bachelor degree here as well, but 20 it’s difficult to think about how international students are politically active here. Andrea 21

would be a good example. 22 23

SECTION: INTERVIEWEE BACKGROUND EXPERIENCES 24

Interviewer: Let’s start with your involvement and experiences. Just explain in 25

detail. What do you for political engagement? 26

27 That’s always changing, there’s nothing changing. At the moment, I would say that I’m 28

not politically active in the typical way of being active in association and bringing 29 forward something to that context. I would see my political activism in a 30 professional context like doing educational work and then trying to put my 31

experiences about participatory methodology in there and that’s engagement that 32 you do just for some conventional thinking mode. How can I enable people to think 33

about their situation and enable them to get active and live and debate as a real 34 exchange between everyone who is present and not as just hearing / listening to 35 someone while remaining passive. Because I’m at the moment quite busy with projects 36

on political education because for me: that’s a career perspective. I’m quite sure that I 37

want to orient my career and enter this field of work after my studies. But between this, 38 there’s the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in beginning of September. In this context, 39 we started this reading circle to look a bit closely at different texts and approaches towards 40

Degross. Also for perspectives on the Global South. I will anyhow go to the conference 41 and set or announce in being a facilitator for the group assembly process -- the special 42 debate or methodologies applied at the conference. The group process will include 43 several working group that will discuss several papers discussing main points regarding 44 Degross. At the moment I am in contact with the organizational team concerning the 45 details. That would widen the framework for something I was engaged. This is something 46

I was engaged in with last year, last summer. I was effective in preparing the team in the 47

conference. I went to the last conference in 2012. Then they started to hold a process to 48 hold the next conference in Germany. In the beginning I was quite involved, but then I 49

quit in the summer to advance some stuff for the university. Afterwards I didn’t get the 50 moment to re-integrate into the group. That’s the most recent thing. 51 52 Interviewer: Is that part of an organization? 53 No, the conference is a big open event with organizations associated as partners or supporters. 54 But especially the preparation group, there were just people who are interested in this. 55 Additionally there’s a network where people are interested in this topic are connected. That 56 network is one main organizing of the conference. But I’ve never been really active to push 57 forward that network. I’m just a member. It’s a social media platform. 58 59

Interviewer: Have you come across international students? Do you have political 60 activity in terms of membership of some organizations that deal with political 61 matters? 62

I’m a member of the Green party, but not really active, I would say at the moment. I did 63 quite a lot for the Young Greens, the last years starting from 2008. I’ve never been quite 64

as active on a big scale or a local level. But for European level, I did many projects. In 65 Freiburg I was more engaged with action groups. The situation with the Greens in 66 Freiburg is quite controversial. I still keep the membership but the dialogue is still quite 67

critical. Even last year at the moment of the protest, I took the moment to write a resolution 68 that was adopted by the local group to send as a solidarity message to the Turkish Green 69

Party just to show that we care for them. 70 71

SECTION: POLITICAL ACTIVISM 72 Interviewer: When you say you don’t consider that much active in that field at the 73

moment, what makes you decide between active or less active? How do you define 74 it? 75 Being active means being part of a group where you meet with people regularly 76

and where you take responsibility and organize something. I would say the core 77 political engagement would be non-commercial. I wouldn’t even say that its 78

commercial what I’m doing at the moment but it’s a professional context because 79 it’s paid. That’s the point. There’s always a difference between political 80

engagement and paid political activity. 81 82 Interviewer: It’s political work. You would differ from professional and a private 83 sphere? You would differ in this activism? 84

Yeah, private. Like the time you spend and work. I would distinguish engagement and 85 work. The other thing is not private because it concerns the public. But it’s a question 86 of paid work or just civic engagement. These are two different things. 87

88 Interviewer: During your time with the Young Green or in the Green party, are there 89 any members with an international background? 90 I think it’s hard for me to say because I’m not well informed. In general, we have in the 91 Greens, we have a local counselor who comes from Turkey. I think he has been re-elected 92 and he was involved with the activity on the park protest. But thinking about international 93

students, but these international students that I know, I would say Andrea is an example 94

for one person directly engaged in a project something political. But then I would say that 95 we have international students who are rather active and I thought of cultural groups 96

which are organizing these cultural or country evenings at the mensa bar. But I have the 97 impression that happens much more often. 98 99

SECTION: POLITICAL ACTIVISM CONSTRAINTS 100 Interviewer: Do you see that as a limited sense of activism? 101

Sometimes in that sense, you present to other people your culture and it’s about food and 102 traditions. It’s about history. But not to debate current political problems or problems in 103 that countries. For example, the Iran evening. You can’t debate on the Iranian regime. 104 105 Interviewer: Would you say that you’re trying to have international students in the 106

Young Green or is there any way to inform them? 107 There are two different parts. On the one hand, looking at the university. On the other 108

hand, looking at local political groups with a public or being there for everyone but 109

especially for young people. But it’s for pupils, students, trainees, or whatever. But 110 thinking about the Young Greens, it’s very important to include everyone in the 111 organizations and to fill the existing gaps with a lack of people from a migration 112

background. There are much less people with a migration background so this isn’t the 113 whole population. Sometimes it depends on the local group, for example: the young 114

greens conducted a study or a research project to get more insight about the challenge 115 to be the only organization of children from academic families. It’s not the case like as 116 that extreme. But I would say that the majority comes from academic families or families 117

with a good educational background. Or a family with less socially problematic 118

backgrounds. But on the other hand: I would say that thinking about international 119

students, I’ve never had … it’s quite a phenomena that hasn’t happened so often. If I think 120 about my time as an executive member of the student union, it’s not that we’ve seen many 121

exchange students who would’ve been active in our structures. 122 123 Interviewer: Why do you think that has happened? Because the Green Movement 124

is an international thing, and that students from other countries might take part… 125 In fact I was talking about the general organization. As I said, the whole situation and 126

workload of coming along was that a new context that difficulty to confront new 127 authorities. If you’re not used to them. You would first of all try to understand the 128 cultural grid you are in then. On the other hand, it could be understood that it’s 129

arrogant and disrespectful if you come from somewhere else and you go against 130

it. Then you destroy any cultural experience if you don’t give a good impression. 131 This would be the extreme. Political engagement to join a group would be a low-132 level. 133

134 Interviewer: But you said that anywhere where you are that you said you would be 135 politically active? 136 For example, these are different things. There are protest confrontations and the will 137 to disagree. How far you’re willing to go for getting active in a political process. It’s 138 a time-consuming and something you have to do additionally and if you have much 139

to do for university, then you won’t jump in much more. You don’t want to get much 140

more busy. Or it also makes a difference if you come to a much more relaxed 141 country where people just come to enjoy their stay. 142

143 SECTION: LANGUAGE AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM 144

Interviewer: What role does language play in political activism in transnational 145 contexts? 146 If you don’t speak yet the local language then it would be quite difficult to join a local 147

already existing organization or you could form some sort of international group who were 148 doing some activities that’s already in fact existing. But even I would say that when I think 149 about the time when I was in another country and being in another country where I could 150 speak French quite well, it is still different compared to someone who has French as their 151 native or mother tongue. 152

It is linked to some frustrating moments that you can’t articulate yourself as you 153 would like to. That you can’t join a debate as you would like to. That someone else 154

is already changing the topic even if you would like to still say something but you 155

are not so quick to react to this. 156 So this is not easy and it is something you really have to want it and desire political 157 activism so that being active represents a value for you and that you understand 158

yourself as a political actor and part of your identity. This is not the case. You won’t 159 carry on these or get yourself in all these struggles. 160

161 SECTION: CASE EXAMPLE OF AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT 162

Interviewer: In spite of all these obstacles for international students, but you say 163

you know some people who are involved in Freiburg. 164

For instance, if you think of Andrea, who speaks perfectly German but on the other hand, 165

there was a clear interest from her side where she already worked on the topic. And 166 others proposed to create or set up a project on criticism of growth from the perspective 167

of the Global South. She was interested too. There’s also a point that I think that if you 168 are here for one year why would an exchange student get engaged into specific questions 169 with the German education system? It’s not really probable or likely. That’s the point: 170

there are quite few people who would take this up and think that okay, now I’m here 171 and so I try to get the point about what is going on and see my part in this. You 172

could but it’s not that you could make directly the link. Sometimes the struggles 173 are similar and if you have been active in your home country, you could also have 174 that activism as part of your identity and has a value for you so you would perhaps 175

even more try to get the link to these struggles that you have at home and those 176

that are existing here in the new context. 177 178 Interviewer: From your experience with Andrea, do you think she contributed from a 179 different point of view as an international student? 180 In this, I would say that the thematic background that she has. But I don’t think that it is 181 necessarily or typically for exchange students or students coming from a different country and 182 even more that I would say that she is also a person who knows quite well or quite experienced 183 with the university system here and how people’s attitudes are and how things are going here. I 184 think she went to a German school in Quito and then she spent an exchange year as a pupil in 185 the region of Baden-Wurttemberg and she’s spent the whole time of her bachelor here in 186

Freiburg and it’s not even comparable to the experiences of a person who comes for a year or 187 less or who is not experienced with all of this. 188 189

SECTION: ACADEMIA AT UNI FREIBURG AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM 190 Interviewer: We are not talking about how students are involved with educational 191

things, but for example: universities offer a lot of possibilities to also get 192 information or be active in contexts outside of the university? For instance, the 193 community or the city or national happenings or beyond. Do you feel like the 194 University of Freiburg there is a considerable offer of general public 195 activities,lectures, clubs, whatever, and they are accessible to international 196

students when it comes to language? Are there a lot of things given in English? Do 197 you think the university is making an effort to present opportunities which go 198 beyond the university sphere to which international people can come? 199

200 My impression is that due to many English-speaking master program to have popped up 201 in the last years, there are often groups who organize for themselves English-speaking 202 activities. But these are often activities for inner circle. The activities of the students of the 203

Environmental governance do stuff together. Also, as part of these cultural groups, there’s 204 the program with the Mensa with the International Group where they offer excursion or 205

cooking events or cultural gatherings. I had the impression that it’s a special community 206 that some local students who are specifically interested in joining these events but it’s 207 again it seems to be a community for international students for themselves. For the 208

institute of political science, I have not met often exchange students in rallies. Now they 209 are working on the buddy system to give the exchange students better opportunities to 210

be integrated into what’s going on. There’s not a strong link and thinking about the institute 211

directly, there is no specific group. Like at SciencePo where there’s a special group that 212

organizes activities for exchange and French students. This does not exist. 213 214 Interviewer: The activities that the university offers which goes beyond study program, 215 political colloquium, what’s your impression? Is there a lot in English or German? Any 216 courses or activities and do you think should it be? 217 218 You’re right. It could be fine, but on the other hand, I would also say that it’s a question of how 219 these activities are open to people who don’t speak German so well. This is a fundamental 220 question in how far you construct or build up a masters program purely in English. So you only 221 come to the city to do the masters and you’re in your english-speaking community. I have some 222 friends who do that -- English, American culture masters program and some of them still with 223 other English speaking people and they have difficulties with speaking German. It’s not an 224 obligation to offer everything in English. Perhaps even to give to the students more opportunities 225 also to get basic knowledge in German and connected / linked to English master speaking 226 programs. You also don’t have to directly pay for a german course somewhere but it’s part of 227 the whole thing: part of the local integration or the possibility of getting into contact. Because at 228 the end, if you would build up some discussion group in English, it’s again something different 229 than joining a local group. You would not make this cultural experience that is something linked 230 to the local group which existed before you came and doesn’t depend on a random setting of 231 international setting which comes and goes. 232 233

SECTION: END 234

Interviewer: Think we can come to the end. Do you have any questions or 235

something you’d like to talk about? Or something for us? Maybe we can say that 236 in interviews, none of the personal information will be given to any third party in 237

how we process your data. 238

Interview Excerpts 1

Interview 1 2

In Freiburg, no. I am not politically active in Freiburg. 3

Yes, I was. I still am. I am part of a non-governmental organisation, and different student organisations in the 4 faculty. For example, we marched against the new university reform that was supposed to be last year. I am 5 looking for more education, and I worked for different groups that were participating on draft of new laws, 6 and so on. 7

I haven’t participated in any political activity in Freiburg. Because of the language. My German is not good 8 enough to participate in a group where they only speak German, or mainly German. 9

But, I have met people who do. Once, I walked in a squat, an occupied house. The house was really 10 colourful and I wanted to walk in. I met with the people who occupied the house. But I wouldn't call this as a 11 political participation. 12

I try to be politically active when I find the issue important for me. So, I don’t know if I would be 13 active if I had more knowledge in the local politics. 14

Language barrier is important for me. Being politically active is really sensitive, and you cant really 15 run into something when you don't understand. First, you don't understand because of the 16 language. And second, you don't understand because you are not familiar with the environment. 17

Political activism for me is taking action in a field you think are important or are somehow banned by 18 authorities. For me is doing action by yourself, or to be active in organising something. Or taking 19 part in action that is organised by someone else, being part of organisations and acting groups. 20 And, the other thing for me is political activism is a lot of times it is important only for people who 21 are doing it. And I think if you find something really important to change something, you need to 22 make your statement clear and easy to understand for big groups, for public. So, I think it is really 23 important to write for a papers, or to support real politicians, like the common politicians. Because, 24 that for me how to make a change. Because, a lot of time people when they are politically active, it is 25 like hundred people on the street or hundred people signing a petition and if they are not clear and if 26 they are close in a group they are not changing I think. So, I think it has multiple layers and multiple 27 levels of political activism. 28

Different cultural background, and shorter time spent here in the city. The network of people I am in touch 29 with are mostly international students and they are not informed enough too. So, we don’t really talk about 30 political situation in Freiburg or political issues in Freiburg. And there is the language barrier for that. 31

32

Interview 2 33

There was a workers day and this day a lot of political parties or feminist organisations or anti capitalist 34 organisations while we are on the park discussed with them. It hasn't been further contact then. 35

This year I am feeling like old. How can I explain it? I don't have the patience like I had last year, you know. 36 Maybe because I am in another context and I find a lot difficult to link with the language. I mean, I am feeling 37 less concerned about politics in Freiburg. I dont have the same tools that I had in France. For example, in 38 France I can use a lot more of language tools. So much more. I mean, I receive so much more information. 39 It’s like very intense here. 40

To be political, took care of everything. Never sleep and never. I mean, uhm I search the word in 41 English again you see. I mean, yes like, an activist is like, he has to be an idealist. He has to have his 42 own idea of what he wants for the world, but without being close , I mean. How can I explain it? To 43 be politically active, it’s fight for the ideals and to try to make things better. It’s a bit naive 44 description. Or, we can make more how definition to be politically active is also, extremist. A lot of 45 people are politically active, and for example I have one cousin he was against the gay marriage and he 46 really really believed in this idea of decadence. He was totally against gay marriage. He was not ready to 47 hear what other people had to say and to listen to the others and be ready for the other ideas. Sometimes, 48

political activity is not you want to print what your vision on the world and not something else, which can be 49 sometimes be totalitarist. 50

I was part of the European Federalists, but I stopped everything. I am still in contact with the European 51 Federalists in Freiburg. I stopped everything because I was kind of disgusted because this 52 organisation, it’s kind of European nationalism. So, I mean, I didn't find myself, of course I would like 53 to join the party to know how it function inside. Just, by curiosity. I mean, my activism was because I 54 was curious. 55

I was passionated by the idea of Europe at the time. Like, long time ago maybe I was like 16, I was 56 really wow it’s like a unique political organisation. More and more, ısee what is wrong. More and 57 more, I lost my faith in this organisation. It’s too much stagnation in this political class. 58

I was the vice-president of the organisation. My role was the motor of the organisation. It’s the place I like to 59 be. I organised many conferences which crossed like feminist theme, internationalist theme, Europeanist 60 theme. Also, we were organising speed-dating french-german. So, a lot of French-German couple have 61 created after this. And, a lot of little actions like. 62

Because, the fact that I cannot handle English or German. It’s a frustration. And I feel like as free as 63 French in expressing myself and understanding others. I mean, the an organisation, the 64 communication is the main… The language barrier. Also, I have to work for my studies and I don't 65 have much time for organisation. I try learn a language. So much stuff to do. 66

I have been to one organisation in Freiburg, Greenpeace in the beginning of the year, with a friend. We were 67 so motivated. But, we said to them that we don't understand German. They didn't make any effort to speak 68 in English. They spoke really good English, but they didn't make any effort to speak English in the 69 meetings. I felt like neglected. This was my first participation in Greenpeace, and bad time. All about 70 behaviour they were cold. It was not the spirit that I hoped to find, you know. I mean, the ideals and 71 how they welcome us, it was very impolite. My first experience was Greenpeace. That was too 72 disappointing. 73

There were not many students in their organisation. I didn't see any international student there. 74

I prefer to attend organisations which speak global issues. 75

I don't think international students are active in Freiburg. Maybe, the language. Nad also the feeling like to 76 belong to I mean, it’s easier to be part of an organisation in your own country belong to your community. And 77 here, you’re a foreigner, you’re not a… Theoretically you are a citizen of Germany, but you are not in the 78 same position. 79

If I had German language, I would be more politically active. 80