Constructing the Virtual and Material Public Spaces: The Cases of “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook Page and Tahrir Square during Egypt 2011 Revolution

Social movements use urban spaces for their representation. They demand a spatial setting for their full effectiveness. However, spatiality of social movements has entered into a new phase since the mid-1990s. The prevalence of the Internet as part of the daily lives of people has challenged traditional theories of social movement and political public space. Recent revolutions and social movements in the Middle East and North African countries, the Arab Spring, and the protests in reaction to the economic crisis and austerity programs of governments in different parts of the globe have created a new phase of research on the relationship between online activism and social movements. Scholars focus more on the role of social networking sites (SNS) and try to articulate their contribution to social movements. This essay has argued that Hannah Arendt’s conception of public space can contribute to the definition of material and virtual public spaces in contemporary social movements. By investigating Tahrir Square as a material public space and ‘We are All Khaled Said’ Facebook page as a virtual public space during the Egypt 2011 revolution, this essay has studied the relationship between these spaces and the events of the revolution. It has showed that Arendt’s concepts of action and speech can theorize the virtual and public spaces of the Egyptian revolution.