ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the diverse ways in which recent coronavirus outbreak has been represented in a number of real, imagined, and lived spaces, including media, political discourse, and everyday locales, such as home and public space, in Turkey. Unlike the dominant risk discourse that represents the pandemic as an ongoing catastrophe that could be mastered, controlled, and overcome through safety measures imposed by institutions such as the state and science, COVID-19 is to be considered in terms of a global risk which defies old ways of framing and action. Focusing on the uncertain, complex, anticipatory, and catastrophic aspects of global risks, the present study analyzes the media coverage and political discourse in Turkey as a discursive space shaping physical spaces as empty, static, container-like background for risk management. Additionally, the virtual environment is seen as a contested, enabling space in which lived experiences, alternative insights, and collaborative action can be represented and put into practice. In so doing, the concept of riskscape is employed as an interpretive tool to explore the complex relations between risk and space.
