We are all familiar with at least one public space near where we live. Perhaps right now you are envisioning your local park, a city square, a form of public transport, your nearest library, or simply a street or road. Public spaces serve many functions: they are places of leisure, social interaction, and cultural expression. Alongside these everyday purposes, they also act as settings for deliberative democracy, often expressed through forms of civic engagement. The Oxford English Dictionary (2001) defines civic engagement as “citizens coming together to participate in public space on public issues.” This makes public spaces integral to democracy, which the OED (2014) describes as “a form of society in which all citizens have equal rights and the views of all are tolerated and respected.” Such equality relies on active citizenship, which Elstub, Ercan, and Mendonça (2016) define as belonging to a political community that shares rights, responsibilities, and a vision for a common future, extending beyond mere legal status such as holding a passport or the right to vote. Therefore, public spaces enable power to be more evenly distributed among citizens rather than concentrated in the hands of a small minority. However, while the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are legally protected in many democracies, in practice these opportunities can be restricted by policing, surveillance, or limited access.
Elstub, Ercan, and Mendonça (2016) argue that deliberative democracy can unfold in various spaces, but its effectiveness depends on how well these spaces connect people, how inclusive they are, and whether discussions influence decision-making. This is often more achievable in large cities, where diverse groups converge and protests are more visible to those in power. Urban public spaces offer greater potential for collective action to gain traction within formal political arenas. A clear example is the Gezi Park protests of May 2013, which began in response to the planned destruction of part of a public park in Istanbul. The protest, later known as the Gezi Movement or June Uprising, quickly expanded into a broader, nationwide mobilisation (Aytekin, 2017). By mid-June, hundreds of thousands had taken part in demonstrations that spread across almost all of Turkey’s 81 provinces (Amnesty International, 2013, p. 5). At the heart of the movement was growing resistance to the AKP government’s construction-driven economic strategy, which increasingly ignored environmental and social costs. The protests reflected widespread opposition to evictions, gentrification, and ecological degradation, and Gezi Park itself became a space that enabled civic participation and diverse tactics of resistance (Aytekin, 2017). According to the Ministry of the Interior, by 23 June approximately 4,900 people had been detained at protest sites, with police continuing to question participants about their alleged involvement through August (Amnesty International, 2013, p. 6).
With the emergence of new technology, public spaces no longer need to be physical; they can also exist digitally through social media, where citizens voice concerns and opinions within their communities, often in ways visible to those in power. The recent protests in Nepal highlight how social media can serve as a powerful platform for democratic engagement, enabling citizens to mobilise and voice concerns collectively. Demonstrations were sparked by the government’s decision to ban 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, for not registering with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (BBC News, 2025). Critics viewed this as an attempt to silence an anti-corruption campaign, which led to widespread unrest (BBC News, 2025). Clashes between protesters and security forces broke out on 8 September; by 9 September the parliament building and other government offices were in flames and Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli had resigned (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2025). The ban was lifted that day, but protests continued until the army imposed a nationwide curfew on 10 September (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2025). By 22 September the violence had left 74 dead and more than 2,113 injured (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2025).
The United Nations has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all (United Nations, 2015). SDG 16 focuses on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels (United Nations, 2015). The protest in Nepal had a positive impact on SDG 16, as it led to the government reversing its social media ban—an example of an institution responding to public pressure and taking accountability. Although the protests in Turkey were only partially successful, they can still be seen as advancing SDG 16. According to Gümrükçü (2023), the Gezi movement “sparked renewed interest in social movements and collective action in Turkey,” helping to build long-term civic awareness and demands for institutional justice and reform. While SDG 16 identifies the need for peace, justice, and strong institutions, it does not explicitly address the factors that cause violence, injustice, and weak institutions such as corruption, inequality, and restrictions on civil freedoms which both protests aimed to confront.
Bibliography
Amnesty International. (2013) Gezi Park protests: Brutal denial of the right to peaceful assembly in Turkey. London: Amnesty International.
Aytekin, E. A. (2017), “A ‘Magic and Poetic’ Moment of Dissensus: Aesthetics and Politics in the June 2013 (Gezi Park) Protests in Turkey,” Space and Polity, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 1
BBC News (2025), ‘What we know about Nepal anti-corruption protests as PM resigns’, Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkj0lzlr3ro (Accessed 2nd October 2025)
Elstub, S., Ercan, S. A., & Mendonça, R. F. (2016), “Deliberative Systems: Normative Foundations and Challenges,” in Democracy and Society
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2025) 2025 Nepalese Gen Z Protests. [Online]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/2025-Nepalese-Gen-Z-Protests (Accessed: 10th October 2025)
Gümrükçü, S. B. (2023), “Unravelling the Cycle of Protest in Turkey’s Gezi Park,” Review of Middle East Studies, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 264–279
Oxford University Press. (2001) Civic engagement. In: Oxford English Dictionary Online. Available at: https://www.oed.com/search/advanced/Quotations?textTermText0=civic+engagement&textTermOpt0=QuotText (Accessed: 9th October 2025)
Oxford University Press. (2014) Democracy. In: Oxford English Dictionary Online. Available at: https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=democracy (Accessed: 9th October 2025)
United Nations (2015) Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ (Accessed: 10th October 2025).
Joshua Morton