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Activist Citizenship and the Dramaturgy of Social Change

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In the Aftermath of Gezi

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change ((PSCSC))

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Abstract

This chapter addresses two issues: Firstly, in considering the Gezi uprising as one of many recent uprisings seen across the globe, the nature of contemporary citizen engagement is explored. Isin’s concept of ‘activist citizenship’ is the point of departure (Isin 2009). Isin emphasizes that activist citizenship opens up to an understanding of social change emphasizing the creative, proactive enactment of social actors. Secondly is explored the connection between short-term mobilization and long-term social change. Uprisings are not stand-alone occurrences and by exploring Gezi Park from the perspective of social movement theory, recognizing and incorporating reflections about the role of social media in social movement, the notion of ‘dramaturgy of social change’ is proposed as an analytical approach to capture the dynamics of an activist citizenship. The urgency as well as the deeper societal challenges of political matters are unveiled.

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Acknowledgements

The sections about ‘dramaturgy of social change’ in the second half of this chapter have appeared in an earlier version in Thomas Tufte (2017): Communication and Social Change—A Citizen Perspective. Cambridge: Polity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leicester, England, UK

    Thomas Tufte

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  1. Thomas Tufte
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Correspondence to Thomas Tufte .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Oscar Hemer

  2. Department of Communication, Business Information Technologies, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Hans-Åke Persson

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Tufte, T. (2017). Activist Citizenship and the Dramaturgy of Social Change. In: Hemer, O., Persson, HÅ. (eds) In the Aftermath of Gezi. Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51853-4_10

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