ABSTRACT
The impact of the revolutions of the Arab Spring against economic inequality, corporate greed and financial injustice was one of the triggers in the coalescing of the Occupy movement. The business magnate and investor George Soros may for some people be marked by a dubious past, but through his Open Society Foundations is a generous sponsor of more vibrant and tolerant democracies. A post-individualist spirit is on the rise, spurred by the realisation that people can have a collective influence on the established powers and their policies. Social media connects people in ways that allow them to understand what is happening on the ground in real time, and how to use public space collectively in mutually empowering ways. The protests in Istanbul had been preceded by many others in the fields of environmental and human rights and they ignited a spread of protests in other Turkish cities including in parks in Izmir and Ankara and in other countries.
