From a Conflictual Coalition to a Social Movement? The Transformative Capacity of the Gezi Protests


Uncu B. A.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE, cilt.40, sa.2, ss.188-216, 2016 (ESCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 40 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2016
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1163/18763332-04002003
  • Dergi Adı: SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.188-216
  • Marmara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The sustainability of the current wave of Occupy protests, taking place in various parts of the world since 2011, is a major outstanding question that is of concern to both movement actors and social movement scholars. In this regard, collective identity construction is a key element, as it facilitates the transformation of multi-issue and multi-actor coalitional networks into sustained movement networks. This paper analyses the Gezi protest as an eventful protest that created free spaces of emotions and cognition. I show that the extended, intensified, and accelerated relations that the protestors have built among themselves in these free spaces lead to the construction of inclusive frames and a collective identity. Yet, based on the data collected through in-depth interviews, it is argued that the transformative impact of the Gezi protests on subsequent mobilizations is neither absolute nor linear.