Visualizing Environmental Injustice: Symbolic Landscapes of Displacement and Resistance in Turkey

Under President Erdoğan, large-scale infrastructure and extractive projects in Turkey have led to widespread environmental degradation and displacement, disproportionately affecting rural, indigenous, and low-income communities. This study examines how environmental NGOs (ENGOs), grassroots movements and communities use social media to frame and mobilize resistance against these projects, including the Akbelen coal mine, Ilısu Dam, Kaz Mountains gold mining, and Kanal Istanbul. Using visual and discourse analysis, this research examines images, videos, and textual posts from Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook posts by grassroots activist groups and ENGOs such as Kazdağları Dayanışması, Akbelen Direnişi, and Ekoloji Birliği. It will explore how displacement is visually represented and discursively framed, examining what aesthetic strategies and symbolic imagery gain traction, and what forms of digital activism emerge. Through visual and thematic analysis, key aesthetic and discursive themes—such as environmental justice, corporate-state alliances, and digital mobilization—will be identified. By investigating how social media serves as a platform for resistance, advocacy, and public discourse, this study contributes to broader discussions on human-environment relations, environmental activism, climate mobility, and eco-resistance in semi-authoritarian contexts. The findings will provide insights into the role of digital spaces in shaping environmental justice struggles and contesting state-driven environmental degradation. The initial findings demonstrate a visual and discursive differentiation in human–nature relations: while villagers frequently frame nature as kin, livelihood, and inherited commons, which grounds their claims to belonging, justice, and resistance; activist organizations or groups more often invoke nature and trees as collective resources under destruction, mobilizing possessive language such as “our forests” and “our trees” that resonates with nationalist and territorial imaginaries.