Speaker
Description
The Gezi Uprising started as a localized urban protest against the redevelopment plans for Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which sought to convert Gezi Park, a public space, into a private commercial development. In the context of post-2008 urban uprisings against austerity urbanism worldwide, the Gezi protests quickly evolved into a nationwide mobilization against the government’s authoritarian tendencies. Although the uprising emerged as a reaction to the commodification and enclosure of public space, politically unorganized urban protestors temporarily created ad hoc urban commons within and beyond Gezi Park. While the protestors’ primary demand was met by preserving the park, Gezi has since become a symbol of bottom-up, oppositional urban politics and claim-making. Within the context of the special session on “Planning and Conflicts in Istanbul,” this paper demonstrates how "post-Gezi" urban politics continue to uphold certain values of localized resistance to profit-driven urban redevelopment projects, yet remain fragmented and marginally unorganized. I also aim to reflect critically on the gap between scholarly analyses, political discourse, and lived experiences of post-Gezi urban politics. This self-reflexive approach will contribute to discussions with fellow panelists on the future of grassroots resistance to urban enclosures and the possibilities of institutionalizing such resistance through urban commons and by rethinking the “public” to demonstrate alternatives to growth-oriented urbanism. Finally, this paper aims to put forward a conceptual question of where uprisings begin and end by building on the rich scholarship on commons to challenge the notion of "post-Gezi" regarding urban politics in Istanbul and in Turkey more broadly.
| Keywords | urban enclosures, urban uprising, Gezi Protests, commons, commoning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
