Tero Ahlgren (University of Turku)

Activism Digitally and on the Ground: Two Cases From Turku, Finland

Contemporary social movements operate on-site and online: upcoming demonstrations are usually promoted online, and ongoing ones are often streamed via different social media platforms. Alice Mattoni describes this hybrid spatiality as the participation infrastructure of the protests. Terry Gunnell has also pointed out the role of the audience: images seen in different media makes the event perform also off-site. I focus on two upcoming Turku based demonstrations organized this August: the Turku ilman natseja (“Turku without nazis“) and Turku Pride. I aim to map out some of the ways of participating in these events both digitally and on the ground.