Tracking digital emergences in the Aftermath of Gezi Park Protests

Abstract

Gezi Park Resistance is widely accepted as a turning point in the role and power of social media in Turkey. I will attempt to substantiate this major claim by tracking several aspects of online activism. I take online activism in the broadest level, including notable non-profit cases with a social mission. This inclusion inevitably includes citizen journalism networks (140Journos, DokuzSekiz Haber) but also several mapping projects (Mülksüzleştirme, DirenÇevre), digital literacy mobilizations, such as crypto-parties (İstanbul Hackerspace), and their possible integration to political mainstream (special attention is given to pro-Kurdish HDP party volunteers, or election volunteers, Oy ve Ötesi). I intend to bring a more pro-active approach. That is, instead of dealing web censorship and digital surveillance at the center of paper, I will contextualize them in the background while focusing on citizens’ claim of the web as a place of freedom of expression and opposition. While doing this, I will track cases before and after Gezi Resistance and will try to determine whether there is a substantive change or continuity. However, my major focus will be the aftermath and I will opt for a semi-ethnographic approach (with a perspective of multi-sited ethnography) in addition to discourse analysis. I have been involved in many of the digital emergences, continued to organize citizen journalism seminars not only in İstanbul but in some other major cities in Turkey and I have tracked digital emergences as part of my jury work at Deutsche Welle Best of Online Activism annual awards. Still, I did not act as an organic intellectual in many instances but followed discussions which could be framed as a public debates among Gezi related citizens. Thus ethnographic work will be merged with a study of partial history of thoughts approach.

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