A Midsummer Night's Coup: Performance and power in Turkey's July 15 Coup attempt

Altınordu, Ateş Ali (2017) A Midsummer Night's Coup: Performance and power in Turkey's July 15 Coup attempt. Qualitative Sociology, 40 (2). pp. 139-164. ISSN 0162-0436 (Print) 1573-7837 (Online)

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Occurring at a time when military interventions appeared to be a matter of the past, the coup attempt of July 15, 2016 left a major mark on Turkish society and politics. This article approaches the July 15 coup attempt as a contingent and transformative event and investigates how symbolic processes helped determine its immediate outcome as well as its cultural, social, and political consequences. Linking the sociological literature on events with social performance theory, the study argues that the putschists' ineffectiveness in projecting legitimacy and power in the critical hours of the coup attempt significantly contributed to its failure. The retrospective construction of an authoritative "Narrative of July 15" in the following weeks, on the other hand, enabled the government to implement specific institutional changes in the cultural, economic, and political domains. The study proposes a two-step analysis for the cultural construction of political events and suggests that social performance theory provides useful analytical tools for tracing the course and explaining the outcome of this process.
Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: July 15; Military coups; Social performance; Events; Turkey
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences > Academic programs > Conflict Analysis And Resolution
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences > Academic programs > Cultural Studies
Depositing User: Ateş Altınordu
Date Deposited: 15 Jun 2017 12:52
Last Modified: 26 Jul 2017 14:34
URI: https://research.sabanciuniv.edu/id/eprint/32355

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item