Gezi

Studies the trajectory of political activism in the aftermath of the 2013 Gezi park protests in Istanbul

• Advances a new agenda for studying social movements by emphasising their constitutive rather than reactive nature in the context of neoliberal destruction of society
• Develops a nuanced approach to the temporality of social movements through the concept of ‘episode’ to reconstruct the emerging experience not simply as a euphoric moment of eruption but a longer process with multiple phases
• Devotes a chapter to each of the three analytically distinct yet connected characteristics of contemporary social movements (mobilisational, spatial, and radical democratic)

Focusing on the intense aftermath of the Gezi park episode, this book scrutinises the ways in which activists pursued a rugged journey of radical democratic mobilisation in Istanbul, including public parks, neighbourhoods and squat houses. Synthesising the findings of field research carried out during 2014-2016 in Istanbul’s Yoğurtçu Park Forum with archival documents and secondary literature, this book weaves the voices of the activists into the narrative. Kaan Ağartan offers a critical analysis of the initial force of the Gezi uprising and its subsequent unravelling in reconstituting a more egalitarian society and democratic citizenship in Turkey.