Civic initiatives of direct support for the student movement in Serbia, 2024-2025: Forms, patterns, motives and effects of engagement

This article analyses civic self-organisation aimed at providing direct support to students and the student movement in Serbia during the 2024/2025 uprising. It examines the forms and patterns of support, the motives and previous experiences of engaged citizens, and the effects of participation on how they understand their own role in the community. Methodologically, the study combines an exploratory desk analysis of media content and publicly available social media posts from 1 November 2024 to 31 May 2025 with four focus group discussions conducted in June 2025 with citizens directly involved in support practices. The findings show that support was organised through informal and non-hierarchical networks, grounded in personal ties, trust and the everyday work of collecting and distributing resources. Citizens’ engagement was driven by different but interconnected motives, including moral and emotional responses to the tragedy and violence, a sense of intergenerational and civic responsibility, criticism of institutional erosion, while participation itself strengthened their sense of individual and collective efficacy.