The Effects of Selective and Indiscriminate Repression on the 2013 Gezi Park Nonviolent Resistance Campaign

We investigate the differential effects of selective and indiscriminate repression on the rate of protest actions during the nonviolent resistance campaign in Gezi Park, Turkey, in 2013. After deriving theoretical expectations about how and why these forms of repression will influence protest actions, we test them with protest event data that were collected from a major local newspaper and subsequently validated through a comparison with two other independent Twitter datasets. Utilizing a Poisson autoregressive estimation model, we find that selective repression, as measured by the number of arrested activists who were detained while they were not demonstrating, decreased the rate of protest actions. Meanwhile, indiscriminate repression, as measured by the frequency of the government’s use of lethal and nonlethal violence against protesters during demonstrations, increased the rate of protest actions. Our findings support prior research on the influence of indiscriminate repression on backfire outcomes. They also provide evidence for the impact of selective repression on movement demobilization through the removal of opposition activists. Finally, the targeted arrest strategy of selective repression that was employed in the Gezi campaign has implications for the feasibility of the strategic incapacitation model of protest policing

Ethnic and gender divisions in tenant participation in public housing

The aim of this investigation is to analyse the decision-making processes in housing in order to see the extent tenants are able to participate in these processes. Of particular interest to this examination are the ethnic and gender divisions in these processes. Thus, this thesis deals with the question of public housing and those theoretical and practical issues that provide an understanding of the relationship between social space and physical space; the complex relationship between individuals, collectivities and the welfare state and how ethnicity and gender issues figure in these practical relationships in general and housing processes in particular. The main theoretical issues to be looked at are the social divisions of ethnicity and gender and related notions of 'power'/ 'empowerment', 'identity'/'difference', 'participation' and 'the community' socially and spatially both at macro and local levels. The methodological approach arising out of the aims of the research was an in-depth study of three different types of housing projects where the degree of tenant involvement in their housing processes varied considerably. Each of these three types of housing projects characterised a different way and degree of participation by tenants in decision-making. These were firstly, council managed estates in which all major and minor decisions are taken by the local authority; secondly, tenant management cooperatives in which tenants take over the responsibility of the day-to-day management of their estate while the ownership of the estate remains with the council and some major decisions are taken by the council; and thirdly, self-build projects which involve tenants in the actual building and management processes of their housing and in which tenant involvement is supposed to be at its highest level

The politics of "Roma inclusion" at the 52nd venice art biennale

At its 52nd edition, the Venice Biennale featured an ethnic collective: the Roma Pavilion. This particular edition signified an important decision on the part of the Biennial's organizers in their willingness to incorporate Europe's largest ethnic minority into the body of an international blockbuster exhibition. By taking into account the consequences of the collapse of communist regime in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the enlargement of the EU and the effects of neoliberal policies in the region, this article explores the ways in which the politics of "Roma inclusion" played out in this art exhibition. Considering the project called the "decade of Roma inclusion 2005-2015" that is supported by the Open Society Institute and the World Bank, and endorsed by the prime ministers of eight CEE countries, this question is very timely: did this particular place of Roma art, sponsored by philanthropy in the corporate environment of a major art institution, aim for negotiating the Roma's "particular political vocabulary" in need to be visible to the diverse Roma populations around Europe or was this exhibition part of the institutional creativity aimed at the socio-political integration of the former communist Europe into the global economic circuits

The Demobilization of Protest Campaigns

All protest campaigns move through cycles of escalation and de-escalation and ultimately demobilize. Some campaigns demobilize quickly as protesters reach their goals. The 2011 Egyptian uprising, when protesters left the streets after they brought down the Mubarak regime, for example, is a case of rapid demobilization. Others, like the 2011 uprising in Bahrain, demobilize over a longer time span before protests come to a complete halt. In Bahrain, the government first cracked down on the opposition by bringing in foreign troops and then continued to repress protesters until the protesters ended the campaign in 2012. Regardless of the length of time it takes for protesters to leave the streets and stop the protests, demobilization is a complex process. Numerous factors, such as severe repression, government concessions, countermobilization of opposition groups, leadership changes, or even unexpected events, can all bring about demobilization. These factors and strategies may occur simultaneously or sequentially, but usually one or a combination of them lead to the demobilization of a protest campaign. Moreover, demobilization is a dynamic process, as it continues to evolve out of the endogenous interactions among governments, challengers, bystanders, and, in some cases, as in Bahrain, external third-party actors.Even though every protest campaign eventually demobilizes one way or another, the demobilization phase has generally attracted less scholarly attention than the onset and escalation of violent and nonviolent forms of collective action. For a long time, most scholars addressed demobilization indirectly within the context of the repression-dissent nexus as they explored why repression backfires and escalates dissent in some cases, while it succeeds in demobilizing the opposition in others. Nonetheless, factors besides state repression contribute to the demobilization of dissent. In other words, a state’s accommodative tactics, as well as individual, organizational, or even regional and systemic factors that interact with the state’s actions, have the potential to shape when and how political dissent demobilizes. More recently, scholars have begun to examine why and how protest campaigns demobilize by stepping out of the repression-dissent nexus and focusing on a variety of other factors related to organizational structures, regime types, individual-level constraints, and contingent events that affect the trajectory of campaigns. At the same time, recent studies on state repression have also begun to focus more heavily on the different causal mechanisms that explain how a state’s repressive tactics can lead to demobilization. While this new line of research has made significant contributions to our understanding of the demobilization of protests, we are still left with important questions about the demobilization process that have yet to be answered

“Populism” versus “Popular”: A Response to Ziarek’s “Populism—A Crux or Crisis of Politics?”

This article discusses two main issues Ziarek highlights regarding populist social movements. The first one is the exclusionary stance populist movements take when contending for power in a democratic society. The second one is the repressive response to contenders when populist movements are in power. The underlying characteristic in both issues is that populists movements assume an anti-pluralist stance against other contending alternatives. Therefore, the distinction between “popular” and “populist” is an important one

The Gezi Park Protests and the Escalation and De-escalation of Political Contention

This study argues that escalation and de-escalation processes lie at the heart of protest campaigns. These processes are largely determined by the interactions between protesters and governments, as well as the timing and types of strategies and tactics employed. The study examines the dynamics between the Turkish government and the protesters during the 2013 Gezi Protest Campaign. This campaign escalated quickly by generating massive support from different segments of the Turkish society in its earlier days, and then de-escalated and eventually demobilized without securing major concessions. By using original data collected from a Turkish newspaper, Cumhuriyet, the study illustrates how the trajectory of the Gezi campaign changed in response to the interactive dynamics between the government and the dissidents

An Evaluation of Academic Training Program (ÖYP) from Professional Socialisation and Identity Perspective

Academic identity is significant in terms of taking the responsibilities of professional roles and performing them adequately. Identity formation starts from the early socialisation experiences of graduate students and develops on what they have acquired during this process. Therefore, Academic Training Program is significant for determining the academic identity of future academics. A review of the literature reveals a lack of research that evaluates Academic Training Program (ÖYP), especially from existing faculty’s point of view, with an identity development perspective. This study aims to investigate the Academic Training Program (ÖYP) in the light of academics’ definition of the characteristics of academic profession, with a focus on professional socialisation and identity development. This qualitative, collective instrumental case study was conducted with 24 academics selected through the maximum variation sampling method from two typical Turkish universities. The content analysis of data revealed that the Academic Training Program (ÖYP) has some adverse effects on the professional development of recruits since the program is not fully compatible with the requirements of academic profession. Keywords: Academic Training Program (ÖYP), academic identity, graduate education, professional socialisatio