How can the mass and spectacular participation of young people in the Gezi Protests in Turkey be further explored by looking through the rigorous lens of sociology? Was it really the sudden transformation of an apolitical generation into a political one as it has often been argued in the public discourse? Or was it just a temporary illusion after which its young participants returned to their usual ‘apolitical’ lives? What was it that, within a span of days, led young people to start protesting on the streets en masse? This book presents an in-depth analysis of the roots and dynamics of young people’s unexpected presence in the Gezi Protests by employing the perspective of cultural sociology, particularly focusing on the concepts of youth and the political. Looking closer at the Gezi Protests, this work offers an analysis of the changing and complex conditions of being young as well as young people’s new ways of doing politics in Turkey. Grounded upon ethnographic in-depth field research, this book elaborately depicts that what happened in the Gezi Protests was not the sudden and miraculous transformation of apolitical young people into political subjects on the streets. Rather, the protests brought into view the changes which had already been taking place in young people’s lives in Turkey under the effects of both local and global processes, i.e. the influences of authoritarian politics and social change characterized by the Islamization of everyday life as well as the implications of neoliberal policies in the restructuring of urban spaces. weiterlesen