Abstract
Airports are located at the core of the production process, but can they also be where the “revolutionary subject” is hidden? We know what airports stand for nowadays, but have we pushed for what they could possibly stand for? Can airports, as a form of urban technology, be reimagined beyond their current roles of a “space technology nexus” driving capital movement? Can we imagine, idealize, and locate them somewhere else in a period dominated by the economy of time, where speed and accessibility matter the most? In this framework, this provocative essay aims to frame airports as a protest and public expression venue. Drawing inspiration from recent examples, such as the Stansted Airport protests in the UK, the Occupy Airports protests that occurred all around the United States, and touching upon the divergent example of Turkey’s 15th of July night protests in 2016, I provide a glimpse of an alternative prospect for this key urban infrastructure.
Highlights
This essay aims to contribute to an expanding concern with Urry’s farsighted note about the emergence of airports as a venue for protest
Airports are a form of urban technology that hold potential to generate movement and stimulate mobility within the geographies of their articulation
Even though they are increasingly propelled to global agendas due to terrorist attacks, deportable subjects, precarious populations, and airports as security theatres, can they function as a “venue” for protest against contemporary “demons”? Advancing this idea requires us to question how and in what ways the conceptualization offered in this essay differs from other airport related protests that have been widely addressed in the literature
Summary
This essay aims to contribute to an expanding concern with Urry’s farsighted note (highlighted above) about the emergence of airports as a venue for protest. The aim of this essay is to highlight the emerging capacity of airports as a venue for public protests, which I materialize in the term “air maidan”. Before developing this concept any further, I find it important to provide a contextual and linguistic justification alluding to its proposed designation. Some of the defining protests of the early 21st century have occurred in “maidans”—the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul and the Arab Spring protests that took place all over Middle East are clear examples These events, but more importantly for the scope of this essay, the “maidans” where they occurred resonated across the globe to become global icons of public mobilizations, as exemplified by the later “Euromaidan” demonstrations in Ukraine. I argue it is pertinent to borrow this term for airports given their role as emerging “stages” for protest
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