Strategizing post-protest activism in abeyance: retaining activist capital under political constraint

Abstract

ABSTRACT The initial optimism on the revival of civic activism in Turkey following the Gezi protests in 2013 was short-lived. The deteriorating legal and political environment has considerably narrowed the civic space for civil society activity. However, the mass mobilizations in 2017 and 2019 showed not only the ongoing willingness but also the activist groups’ ongoing capacity to collectively defy, resist and contend. This article focuses on this capacity which I term as the activist capital. More specifically, this article analyses post-Gezi activists’ ability to adapt to deteriorating conditions and to retain the activist capital during abeyance. This article argues that activist capital is necessary to understand how activist groups sustain their movement in the post-Gezi environment in Turkey. By combining it with the concept of activist capital as a variable, this article enhances the abeyance theory and helps us better interpret movement continuity in repressive political environments. This article also shows how the activist groups act strategically to retain their activist capital.