Özet:

The experience of public sphere goes back to ancient Greece and has carried with itself different characteristics in various historical eras. In this study, the notion of public sphere is addressed from a historicist perspective, along with an analysis of its history and implications. The aim of the study is to shed light on the evolution of the notion of public sphere in Turkey since the Ottoman era. The Ottoman context provided, though not in the Western sense, a basis for certain dynamics, which would pave the way for the notions of public sphere and civil society. During the one-party regime, however, the republican system of government favored a single identity, and thus established a conception of public sphere that is uniform, monolithic, and resistant to pluralism. But the multi-party era saw the emergence of a new approach that facilitated the representation of different identities in the public sphere. In the 1980s and 90s, with the bourgeoning social diversity, the representation of different identities in the public sphere gradually gained significance. But the expansion of public sphere to include the Islamic identity was interrupted by the 28 February incident, the counter-attack of the state elite. In the 2000s, as the effects of 28 February incident diminished, hegemony lost its ground, and thus horizontal relationships and a local perspective prevailed, facilitating the representation of diverse identities in the public sphere. It was the period that would eventually clear the way for a sense of community that is open to otherness and social inclusion in a multi-layered and pluralist future world based on identity politics, and that represented a radical rupture with the old paradigm. 

Anahtar Kelimeler: