Going beyond the divides: coalition attempts in the follow-up networks to the Gezi movement in Istanbul

Abstract

As the 2013 Gezi protests in Turkey faded, they were replaced by a flurry of solidarity and defence groups across Istanbul, opening up new coalition-building opportunities for previously fragmented social movement networks. This paper problematizes the coalition-building attempts by these follow-up networks in the face of neoliberal urbanism under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Looking into such attempts by three networks, namely the Kadıköy City Solidarity (KCS), the Beyoğlu City Defense (BCD) and the Northern Forest Defense (NFD), the paper discusses the potentials and limitations of the post-Gezi networks as loci for coalition-building among the ‘dispossessed’ and the ‘alienated’ in Istanbul. Building on ethnographic research, it is argued that coalition-builders do not neatly fit into the categories of ‘the dispossessed’ and ‘the alienated’, but manifest themselves in many fusions, displaying diverse motivations. It is argued that the divergent priorities of diverse groups put a strain on coalition attempts with mixed results: a disjuncture between collective neighbourhood interests and individual monetary interests in the KCS case; rapid operationalization of colossal projects and pressure from macro-politics precluding a long-term alliance in the NFD case; and a relatively more successful alliance in the BCD case where material and sociocultural priorities converged.