Right to public space and right to democracy: The role of social media in Gezi Park

Abstract

Gezi Park represents a unique example of a mobilization process focused on the right to public space and democracy in Turkey, where forms of bottom up active citizenship have emerged in order to bring forward demands for environmental and social justice. This paper is focused on the role of social media in triggering the protests and in establishing these two central frames. By conducting a discourse analysis of social media content, we provide an overview of the principal narratives that emerged during the days of the Gezi movement. Our article is centrally focused on the adoption of a connective action framework. We argue that social media in occupygezi played the role of mobilizing agent that brought together a heterogeneous mix of participants and offered the chance to personalize the individual grievances that were expressed and promoted by the participants.