ABSTRACT
This chapter draw parallels between the use of public leisure spaces, such as parks and squares, and the use of certain forms of digital networks for protest. The protest parks serve as a metaphor to remind people of the spatial history of political and social activism in public leisure domains. The chapter also examines the range of mediations that enable the transformation of these seemingly innocuous spaces into places of activism. In essence, it explicitly maps the relationship between public leisure space and politics, not as a digital invention but as an extension of the rich tradition of the protest parks of the past. By looking at case studies of urban parks and social media platforms in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, the chapter has argued that public leisure domains are ideologically driven and symbolically marked often by state and/or corporate agendas that can be seen as authoritarian, paternalistic, or libertarian.
