Alternative spaces emerging from the Gezi protests: from resistance to alternatives

Protest events such as those associated with Occupy Wall Street, the 15M across a number of Spanish cities, and Gezi Park in Istanbul are some of the outward manifestations of a wave of urban social movements either emerging or picking up new momentum in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. A flurry of studies have already analysed these and similar protests elsewhere from a host of different perspectives (e.g. Della Porta and Mattoni, 2014). What this chapter aims to do instead is to trace some of the ripple effects that continue to traverse the cities in which such protests are staged, even after the last activist has left the occupied site. In Istanbul the Gezi Park occupation – which took place during the summer of 2013 – has subsequently inspired the creation of a number of alternative urban spaces in a variety of Istanbul neighbourhoods. The chapter takes a closer look at two of these – a social centre and a guerrilla garden – to begin building an understanding of the radical afterlives engendered by the outbursts of radical energies that Gezi reflects.