Revising the Culture of Political Protest after the Gezi Uprising in Turkey: Radical Imagination, Affirmative Resistance, and the New Politics of Desire and Dignity

The Gezi uprising can be considered a crucial turning in Turkish politics. As a response to countrywide democratic protests, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government revived the security state, escalated authoritarian tendencies, and started to organize a nationalist, Islamist, and conserv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mediterranean quarterly 2018-09, Vol.29 (3), p.55-77
Main Author: Yilmaz, Zafer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarianism
Culture
Demonstrations & protests
Desire
European History
European Studies
Habitus
Hegemony
History
Human dignity
Imagination
Interest groups
Islam
Justice
National security
Nationalism
Neoliberalism
Polarization
Political culture
Political parties
Political Science
Politics
Protest movements
Radicalism
Resistance
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Summary:The Gezi uprising can be considered a crucial turning in Turkish politics. As a response to countrywide democratic protests, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government revived the security state, escalated authoritarian tendencies, and started to organize a nationalist, Islamist, and conservative backlash. This essay argues that the Gezi Park protests revealed both the fragility of the AKP's hegemony and the limits of the dominant political group habitus, which were promoted by the party to consolidate political polarization in favor of the party's hegemony. Moreover, it is argued that the Gezi uprising transformed the culture of political protests in the country and paved the way for the emergence of affirmative resistance, radical imagination, and a new politics of desire and dignity against authoritarian and neoliberal policies.
ISSN:1047-4552
1527-1935
DOI:10.1215/10474552-7003168