Istanbul sounding like revolution: the role of music in the Gezi Park Occupy movement

Popular Music ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaella Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Protest Music ◽  
Occupy Movement

AbstractThis article focuses on the role of protest music in the biggest social movement of recent Turkish history. It is the result of three years of fieldwork triangulating musical and cultural analysis with ethnographic methods. Motives of the protest, strategies of the movement, agency of musicians and participatory performances are investigated and contextualised in an analysis of Turkey's cultural changes. The function of music shifted from framing the protest to encouraging political action and fostering a sense of belonging to the collective identity of the Gezi Park movement. Music even became political activism. By underlining different functions played by music in the case of the Gezi Park movement, this article problematises the relevance of music for social movements.

scholarly journals The symbol of social media in contemporary protest: Twitter and the Gezi Park movement

2020 ◽  
pp. 135485652093374
Author(s):  
Olu Jenzen ◽  
Itir Erhart ◽  
Hande Eslen-Ziya ◽  
Umut Korkut ◽  
Aidan McGarry
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
Media Practices

This article explores how Twitter has emerged as a signifier of contemporary protest. Using the concept of ‘social media imaginaries’, a derivative of the broader field of ‘media imaginaries’, our analysis seeks to offer new insights into activists’ relation to and conceptualisation of social media and how it shapes their digital media practices. Extending the concept of media imaginaries to include analysis of protestors’ use of aesthetics, it aims to unpick how a particular ‘social media imaginary’ is constructed and informs their collective identity. Using the Gezi Park protest of 2013 as a case study, it illustrates how social media became a symbolic part of the protest movement by providing the visualised possibility of imagining the movement. In previous research, the main emphasis has been given to the functionality of social media as a means of information sharing and a tool for protest organisation. This article seeks to redress this by directing our attention to the role of visual communication in online protest expressions and thus also illustrates the role of visual analysis in social movement studies.

The Role of Social Identity in Decisions to Protest

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burt Klandermans ◽  
J.Van Stekelenburg
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Social identity processes play a crucial role in the dynamics of protest, whether as antecedents, mediators, moderators, or consequences. Yet, identity did not always feature prominently in the social or political psychology of protest. This has changed—a growing contingent of social and political psychologists is involved now in studies of protest behavior, and in their models the concept of identity occupies a central place. Decades earlier students of social movements had incorporated the concept of collective identity into their theoretical frameworks. The weakness of the social movement literature on identity and contention, though, was that the discussion remained predominantly theoretical. Few seemed to bother about evidence. Basic questions such as how collective identity is formed and becomes salient or politicized were neither phrased nor answered. Perhaps social movement scholars did not bother too much because they tend to study contention when it takes place and when collective identities are already formed and politicized. Collective identity in the social movement literature is a group characteristic in the Durkheimian sense. Someone who sets out to study that type of collective identity may look for such phenomena as the group’s symbols, its rituals, and the beliefs and values its members share. Groups differ in terms of their collective identity. The difference may be qualitative, for example, being an ethnic group rather than a gender group; or quantitative, that is, a difference in the strength of collective identity. Social identity in the social psychological literature is a characteristic of a person. It is that part of a person’s self-image that is derived from the groups he or she is a member of. Social identity supposedly has cognitive, evaluative, and affective components that are measured at the individual level. Individuals differ in terms of social identity, again both qualitatively (the kind of groups they identify with) and quantitatively (the strength of their identification with those groups). The term “collective identity” is used to refer to an identity shared by members of a group or category. Collective identity politicizes when people who share a specific identity take part in political action on behalf of that collective. The politicization of collective identity can take place top-down (organizations mobilize their constituencies) or bottom-up (participants in collective action come to share an identity). In that context causality is an issue. What comes first? Does identification follow participation, or does participation follow identification?

Toward a Militant Ethnography of Infrastructure: Cybercartographies of Order, Scale, and Scope across the Occupy Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-509
Author(s):  
Joan Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Infrastructure Studies

Taking networked social movements as a fieldsite, I chart how the Occupy Movement transformed as activists turned to building infrastructure as a mode of political participation. Critically, infrastructure is not simply a feature of networked social movements, but forms its core capacities. Integrating insights from militant ethnography with STS research on infrastructure studies, I illustrate how to use these methods to render visible the infrastructure of networked social movements. Because militant research projects and STS scholarship have a dual role of making knowledge about as well as knowledge for participants, examining the epistemological foundations of social movement research requires understanding the researcher’s purpose for participating and, then, operationalizing their knowledge. To illustrate this, I introduce cybercartography, a theory/methods package, for mapping organizational change in order, scale, and scope across networked social movements. As such, cybercartography bridges academic knowledge production with activists’ goals to organize action.

Queer Festivals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Eleftheriadis
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
European Level

To what extent is queer anti-identitarian? And how is it experienced by activists at the European level? At queer festivals, activists, artists and participants come together to build new forms of sociability and practice their ideals through anti-binary and inclusive idioms of gender and sexuality. These ideals are moreover channelled through a series of organisational and cultural practices that aim at the emergence of queer as a collective identity. Through the study of festivals in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Copenhagen, and Oslo, Queer Festivals: Challenging Collective Identities in a Transnational Europe thoughtfully analyses the role of activist practices in the building of collective identities for social movement studies as well as the role of festivals as significant repertoires of collective action and sites of identitarian explorations in contemporary Europe.

Concluding Thoughts

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-644
Author(s):  
DEBORAH GOULD
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Alliance Formation ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
The Many

Fifteen plus years into the ‘emotional turn’ in the study of contentious politics, the question is no longer ‘do emotions matter’ but rather ‘do emotions evernotmatter?’ Or, stated positively, can we grasp the phenomena that we group together under the name of collective political action without paying attention to feelings, emotions, affect? As others have argued, the factors that social movement scholars deem important for mobilisation – e.g. political opportunities, organisations, frames – have force precisely because of the feelings that they elicit, stir up, amplify, or dampen. We turn towards emotion, then, in order to understand the workings of the key concepts in the field. In addition, we need to explore feelings because they often are a primary catalyst or hindrance to political mobilisation, attenuating the role of other factors. Then there are the many other aspects of collective political action, beyond the question of mobilisation per se, where emotions play important roles, from ideological struggles to alliance formation to activist rituals to collective identity formation to community building. So, again, are emotions ever unimportant, are they ever a simply trivial aspect of what happens in and around contentious politics? Historians of emotion might take the argument further. If, as Rosenwein argues, ‘emotions are about things judged important to us’,2if emotions are indications of what matters, of what is valued and devalued, how can scholars interested inanyaspect of social lifenotconsider emotions?

Contested Practice: Political Activism in Nursing and Implications for Nursing Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Buck-McFadyen ◽  
Judith MacDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Education ◽  
Nursing Students ◽  
Nurse Educators ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Rational Approach ◽  
Purposeful Sampling ◽  
Life History Study

AbstractCanadian nurses have a social mandate to address health inequities for the populations they serve, as well as to speak out on professional and broader social issues. Although Canadian nursing education supports the role of nurses as advocates for social justice and leadership for health care reform, little is known about how nurse educators understand activism and how this translates in the classroom. A comparative life history study using purposeful sampling and a critical feminist lens was undertaken to explore political activism in nursing and how nurse educators foster political practice among their students. Findings from interviews and focus groups with 26 Ontario nurse educators and nursing students suggested that neoliberal dynamics in both the practice setting and in higher education have constrained nurses’ activist practice and favour a technical rational approach to nursing education. Implications and strategies to inspire political action in nursing education are discussed.

scholarly journals Change by Activism: Insurgency, Autonomy, and Political Activism in Potosí-Jerusalén, Bogotá, Colombia

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
Juan Usubillaga
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
The One

Cities today face a context in which traditional politics and policies struggle to cope with increasing urbanisation rates and growing inequalities. Meanwhile, social movements and political activists are rising up and inhabiting urban spaces as sites of contestation. However, through their practices, urban activists do more than just occupy spaces; they are fundamental drivers of urban transformation as they constantly face—and contest—spatial manifestations of power. This article aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the role of activism in the field of urban design, by engaging with two concepts coming from the Global South: <em>insurgency</em> and <em>autonomy</em>. Through a historical account of the building of the Potosí-Jerusalén neighbourhood in Bogotá in the 1980s, it illustrates how both concepts can provide new insight into urban change by activism. On the one hand, the concept of insurgency helps unpack a mode of bottom-up action that inaugurates political spaces of contestation with the state; autonomy, on the other hand, helps reveal the complex nature of political action and the visions of urban transformation it entails. Although they were developed at the margins of conventional design theory and practice, both concepts are instrumental in advancing our understanding of how cities are shaped by activist practices. Thus, this article is part of a broader effort to (re)locate political activism in discussions about urban transformation, and rethink activism as a form of urban design practice.

scholarly journals Music, Contentious Politics, and Identity: A Cultural Analysis of “Aksi Bela Islam” March in Jakarta (2016)

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahmat Hidayatullah
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Repertoire Of Contention

This article examines the role of music as a repertoire of contention and as a framing device used to challenge the political legitimacy of the rulers and strengthen the collective identity of the participants in  “Aksi Bela Islam” (ABI), a demonstration held in Jakarta at the end of 2016. Rizieq Shihab, one of the key actors of ABI, wrote two songs known as “Si Ahok Durjana” and “Mars Aksi Bela Islam”. This paper argues that the success of mass mobilization during ABI cannot be separated from the creative use of media and popular culture—including music. The key actors of ABI used music and popular media as framing devices to communicate cognitive meanings, mobilize potential adherents, delegitimize authorities, instill emotional feelings and awaken the collective identity of Muslims. This paper applies social movement theory that emphasizes the significance and role of cultural factors in the dynamics of social movements.

Research on Internal-External Control and Social-Political Activism: A Note and Bibliography

1974 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 619-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen I. Abramowitz
Keyword(s):  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
External Control ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Personal Meanings ◽  
Motivational Constructs

Empirical inconsistencies in the locus of control and social-political action literature are noted and attributed, in part, to observers' tendency to overlook the potentially crucial role of the personal meanings of the actor's political involvement. Increased attention to these motivational constructs and to the development of techniques for assessing them is encouraged.

scholarly journals The role of social media in shaping the animal protection movement in indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Angga Prawadika Aji
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
New Members ◽  
Animal Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Social

In the past decade, the number of community-based animal protection movements has shown a significant increase in Indonesia. These groups are actively fighting for animal rights, protection, and conservation while continuing to expand the influence and attract new members through various channels, especially social media. This article seeks to see the contribution of the social media strategy used by animal rights groups to the three basic elements of a social movement: collective identity, actual mobilisation, and network organisation. How social media, especially Face book and Instagram, are used by animal rights groups to achieve their ultimate goal as a social movement. This analysis also seeks to map the character of the movement for animal protection in Indonesia in the realm of new media based on their ideology, strategies, and objectives they want to achieve.

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