Urban space-making through protests : The transformation of Gezi park into a bricolage

Abstract

In the last decade, the world has seen a surge of protests and social movements. Also in Turkey, a group of protesters occupied the Gezi Park in 2013 against the government’s plans to transform it into a commercial complex. This paper explores the protests to advance knowledge on the relationship between urban space and protests. The paper argues that first; Gezi Park reflects variegated ‘rights of, in and to the city’ created through ‘commoning’. Second, the Park becomes a ‘socio-spatial-virtual bricolage,’ which contains past and present, traditional and contemporary and global and local subjects, elements and activities and different realms such as the physical and the virtual. Finally, the paper argues that the Park reflects a new political urban space and subjectivity.