Author Meets Critic: Gezi the Making of a New Political Community in Turkey

This is an 'Author meets Critic' session. We will discuss the book Gezi: The Making of a New Political Community in Turkey" (2024) with the author Kaan Ağartan and two critics to be confirmed.

The book studies the trajectory of political activism in the aftermath of the 2013 Gezi park protests in Istanbul. It scrutinises how activists pursued a rugged journey of radical democratic mobilisation in Istanbul, including public parks, neighbourhoods and squat houses. Synthesising the findings of field research carried out during 2014-2016 in Istanbul’s Yoğurtçu Park Forum with archival documents and secondary literature, this book weaves the voices of the activists into the narrative. Kaan Ağartan offers a critical analysis of the initial force of the Gezi uprising and its subsequent unravelling in reconstituting a more egalitarian society and democratic citizenship in Turkey.