Turkey’s Arendtian moment: Gezi Park protests

Abstract:

Urban spaces have always been sites of conflict. This article examines the Gezi Park occupation of June 2013 in Istanbul. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s political theory and constructing Arendt’s public space as an actual, physical location that allows members of a community to come together and act in concert to bring about social, political and cultural change, this article demonstrates that the occupied public spaces, such as Gezi Park, hold the potential for the creation of inclusive and active citizenship practices, and the possibility of direct, participatory democratic politics.