Visibility through invisibility: Spatialized political subjectivities of Alevi youth

Abstract

AbstractThis article investigates Alevi youth subjectivities in a neighborhood of İstanbul, Okmeydanı, in which mainly Alevi people live, through the youth’s self-positionings in revolutionary groups, which has deeply marked the highly politicized history of the district. The grievances of Okmeydanlı Alevi youth have grown increasingly complex, stemming from experiences of violence, family legacies of victimhood, and, in recent years, new forms of exclusion. Coupled with generational ruptures between youth and their families in experiencing Alevi identity, Alevi youth have created a political identity and collectivity in the sphere of revolutionary politics. In this politicization, Okmeydanı becomes a spatialization of resistance which gives the youth a sense of power to achieve solidarity and find intimacy to defend themselves and their rights. Moreover, for the youth, engaging in a revolutionary political identity enables them to define themselves and redefine Alevi identity in contrast with, and sometimes against, the perceptions of their families. I argue that it is through this performativity that Okmeydanlı Alevi youth achieve self-empowerment and identity construction; and through this performativity in street politics that the youth render their agencies and self-representations visible on public space.