Persistent Activist Communication in Occupy Gezi

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: AbstractWe revisit the notion of activist persistence against the backdrop of protest communication on Twitter. We take an event-based approach and examine Occupy Gezi, a series of protests that occurred in Turkey in the early summer of 2013. By cross-referencing survey data with longitudinal Twitter data and in-depth interviews, we investigate the relationship between biographical availability, relational and organisational ties, social and personal costs to persistent activism online and on-location. Contrary to expectations, we find no clear-cut relationship between those factors and sustained commitment to participation in the occupation. We show that persistent activist communication did not feed into enduring organisational structures despite the continuous online activity observed during and beyond the peak of the Gezi occupation. The article concludes with reflections on the organisational ramifications of persistent communication and its significance in a political context posing high risks to participation in dissident politics.

Digitizing Sociology: Continuity and Change in the Internet Era

“…They argue that young people’s everyday engagements with social network sites are more appropriately seen as post-subcultural, than subcultural, given the more subjective and individualized expressions unmoored to class and other identities based on social location. Resonating with Mercea et al’s (2018) aforementioned findings from an entirely different context, one contribution of this research is the identification of multifaceted uses for Facebook and other social media sites. Beyond the pursuit of self-expression to imagined audiences and, relatedly, the cultivation of new associations (networking), participants in this study were unequivocal over the primary use of these platforms to solidify and maintain existing relationships.…”

“…Building on a growing literature examining the role of social media in activist movements (e.g. Tufekci, 2017), Mercea et al (2018) (included in this e-special) examine how social media relates to sustained engagement with the ultimately successful Occupy Gezi movement of 2013. Different from other analyses of ‘hashtag activism’, which tend to focus on messaging and mobilization, a particular concern here is how Twitter activity influenced the durability of engagements with a movement.…”

Beyond the iconic protest images: the performance of ‘everyday life’ on social media during Gezi Park

“…Much research has focused on who was involved in the Gezi Park protests, how, and why (Konda, 2014), and in reaction to the labelling by the government of all protestors as 'çapulcu' (looters), who supposedly had little regard for their fellow citizens. Other research has explored the Gezi Park protests as a battle over public space (Karasulu, 2014;Inceoglu, 2015), as an event and rupture to the existing political order (Taşkale, 2016;Aytekin, 2017;Ackali, 2018), an opportunity to experiment with a new way of life (Farro & Demirhisar, 2014) as well how protestors used social media (Mercea et al, 2017;Saka, 2017). There has been quantitative research carried out on Gezi Park protests, which has attempted to capture the role that social media played in initiating, promoting and spreading political participation (SMaPP, 2013).…”

Protests as “Events”: The Symbolic Struggles in 2013 Demonstrations in Turkey and Brazil

“…It helped to mobilise the protestors in large numbers and enabled the movement to take a pluralistic and an inclusive shape (Tufekci 2017). Many scholars have ex-amined the widespread use of social media during the course of events (see, for example, Demirhan 2014; Farro & Demirhisar 2014;Mercea et al, 2017;Odabas & Reynolds-Stenson 2017). The existing research suggests that social media provided an alternative media platform by disseminating information about the protests while mainstream media was silenced (Ozturkcan et al, 2017).…”