Gender Implications of Urban Daily Mobility Practices in the City of Santiago de Chile
Author: Paola Jiron
Urban regeneration is continuously and rapidly taking place in cities in developing countries, not only in city centres but throughout urban areas, normally without any explicit urban policy behind it. Thus urban physical interventions such as housing, infrastructure, services particularly, but also economic and social investment, generate great local opportunities but also have serious implications in the experience of living these changes on a everyday bases. One of the aspects that is greatly affected is urban daily mobility practices. However, these practices are rarely taken into consideration, and even less so the gender implications these have. This paper will focus on the comparison of two groups of urban dwellers, low and middle income, and reveal gender differences that cut across age and income. The paper is based on the PhD research on Urban Daily Mobility Practices: Emplacing Urban Inequality in Santiago de Chile.
Gender and the arrangement of physical environment amd family-oriented cultural events in urban regeneration: The Case of LSO St.Luke’s
Author: Tzung Lee
Abstract: Gender is an issue both involve the arrangement of physical environment and the family-oriented cultural events in urban regeneration (I use LSO St. Luke’s in London as case study). At my current stage of my thesis, I only have kicked off the following perspectives:
- I consider the ways in which children and young family are included in the cultural service as an intersection of gender policy and cultural investment in inner-city.
- the social practice in the reused historic building and performance space has strong influence on individual social network. Different types of concerts (family-oriented or commercial) would draw different audiences and has little to address gender and family issues in poor neighbourhood.
My later stage of thesis will address gender issues in the process of community empowerment. At this stage I can only address two perspectives and I would appreciate any comment on gender issues on urban regeneration in old city quarter.
Flash Talk: Generating Diversity- Beyond the Aesthetic
Author: Jessica Ferm
The ongoing debate in architecture and planning circles on the relative merits of promoting modern architecture and preserving historic buildings seems to ignore some key questions
What activities take place in existing buildings? Who occupies them? How do buildings contribute to the revelation of the history of an era, and ideas of place, identity, culture and collective memories? What are the economic and social impacts of destroying the old and starting afresh – if the urban landscape changes, how does this affect urban “life”?
Jane Jacobs (1961) identified the need for aged buildings as one of four conditions for city diversity. She focused on the value of a “lot of ordinary low-value old buildings rather than museum-piece buildings”. If an area only has new buildings, she says, the enterprises that can exist there are limited to those that can support the costs of new construction.
Since the time of Jane Jacobs’ writing in 1961, there has been a sea change in the way we view old buildings. Firstly, the conservationist lobby has grown significantly. Secondly, regeneration as a concept grew out of an understanding that buildings from the turn of the 20th century, particularly old industrial buildings, have aesthetic and functional value and can be “reused”. Regeneration strategies and planning policy frameworks are nowadays often informed by a detailed analysis of an area’s character and historic value, which in turn informs decisions about which buildings are to be retained and which to be developed. This analysis, however, tends to be restricted to buildings with so-called “historic value” and has very little to do with economic considerations or generating diversity. If we are interested in creating diverse and vibrant cities, that the widest cross-section of the population can contribute to and enjoy, then we need to move beyond the aesthetic towards an understanding of how economic and social diversity in cities can flourish, considering – alongside it – the “life” of a city and the people within it.
Note:
This abstract has been inspired by my professional experience and academic insights. It forms the basis for my forthcoming PhD but I would particularly like to explore ways in which these ideas can inform practice in regeneration and planning.
“Fertile Ground”: The role of gender and nature in the urban city space
Authors: Katey Staton and Lambros Fatsis
The presentation attempts to hold thorough discourse on the topic of the city, defined as a post-modern urban metropolis, and the ways in which it can be discussed in relation to gender; operating within it as a symbolic social structure. In order to achieve this, it will be necessary to draw upon in-depth discussions on the historical creation of the female subject, its links with (the elements of) nature, and the birth of western cities as the accommodating space of those realms. Using both theoretical and methodological tools, we wish to demonstrate how both gender and nature appear and function as decorative and idealised elements within the city, which as the presentation will suggest should be integrated and lived elements of the city.
It will be held that no understanding of the city can arise without recognition of masculine and feminine experiences of it, and that a truly transformative vision of regeneration is intermittently linked with such a perspective. It is also vital from the outset to underline the ways in which masculine/feminine traits are represented within the urban built environment where masculine forms embody civilization; design, control, power and dominance, and feminine forms signifying nature; decor, representation of the idyll and the ideal, beauty, and romantic inspiration.
Given the broad, controversial, elliptic, and abstract stance here espoused, it should be noted that we aim more towards an exercise in perception rather than a conclusive or all-inclusive, fully-fledged theory. Our aim is more to encourage debate and to provide a metaphorical conception and platform for ample discussion for transcending the gender division and embrace academic and public forums at large.
The primary premises for the presentation are:
Raising sophisticated awareness into understanding the uses of the natural environment within urban planning, by offering an illustrative method for thinking about the city as a product of western civilization and culture. Human planning and design is viewed as an intervention in the natural environment upon which urban city structures are erected, and the gendered experiences derived. Modern urban planning and regeneration aims towards a more egalitarian experience of the city but does not fully recognize gender and nature at the point of design inception. Unequal distribution of the natural elements within the urban space raises questions into the role of both gender and nature within modern city life; what and who gives primacy to whom and why? Where can we see this in action? In the depicting of nature (a) in the form of women (b) in friezes and other decorative parts which punctuate buildings. Female images are employed for resonating concepts of virtue, beauty, humanity and romantic inspiration while male images serve as signifiers of power, status and achievement. Examples of this can be seen in parks, statues, and the undermining of natural elements as marginalized objects i.e. separation of natural elements from the city space by erecting barriers and isolating green spaces by divorcing them from the lived experience. Concluding upon these points, it is important to stress that the discussion presented to consider issues of regeneration, gender and city space, is based on an inherently social rather than merely architectural standpoint, allowing us as sociologists to offer a platform for discussion; does our lived experience of the city not evolve from gendered dynamics, and experiences of lived environments.
Discursive fear, safety and resistance: women’s experiences on the London Underground
Author: Alex Fanghanel
I explore the ways in which women construct feelings of safety and feeling of fear in semi-private space, with particular focus on the London Underground. I argue fear and safety are constructed through discourse. Within this epistemology I argue that fear is constructed in a multiplicity of ways and can, in turn, be resisted in equally multiple and varied ways. It is this resistance to discursive fear, rather than the counter discourse of safety that I argue will enable women to feel safer in space and confident in their mobility. However this approach necessitates a collaborative attitude to the issue of fear in public space rather than privileging a top-down approach that a focus on “designing out fear” through the built environment might involve. I conducted a qualitative and quantitative survey of 36 women’s attitudes to the space of the London Underground. I explored which factors contribute to their feelings of safety, their feelings of fear, and through some of the responses, was able to infer resistance to dominant scripts of safety in public space.
In analysing the results, it became clear that aspects of the built environment of the Underground are both sources of fear and sources of safety to some women. However, due to the conflicting and contradictory nature of the fear of crime, the efficacy of initiatives to “design out” fear, through adapting the physical environment, or regeneration alone is potentially limited. Instead in this study, I argue that designing out fear necessitates interaction with the women who experience feelings of fear or safety in the space. Physical change to space can only have limited success with a complimentary, though not parallel initiative to alter social space. I found that fear of the “Other” was a factor that most contributed to feelings of unsafety in space. This fear is exacerbated in the context of the Underground, which, due to its semi-private status can be exclusionary. Differences between sanctioned and unsanctioned individuals are visually marked by the absence of the unsanctioned: those to be feared (e.g. youths, homeless, drunks, vagrants, individuals suffering mental illnesses). This is most obvious in the contrast in the space inside an Underground station, and that immediately outside of it, where many of these others to “be-feared” might loiter. It is argued that one way of reducing fear in the context of the Underground is to make space more inclusive. This notion has wider applications; in rejecting ideas about who is allowed and who is not allowed in a space, and in increasing accessibility to wider groups of people, fear that is bred through discourses of the “other” can be rejected and potentially erased. It is in designing people in, rather than designing fear out, that women’s fear of violent crime in public space might be reduced.
Activists, Agents and Mothers: A Study of African-American Women in Community Development in Pittsburgh, PA
Author: Jocelyn Horner
This paper examines the relationship between race, gender, and community activism in urban America. In particular, it explores the dual traditions of women’s civic engagement in the African-American and urban contexts, analyzing these historical foundations for contemporary activism. Question of politicization and self-perception are also addressed. The aim of this work is to begin to develop a comprehensive picture of African-American women’s activism in the United States to understand how their involvement has shaped urban society and what lessons can be learned for pracitioners in community development organizations in terms of engaging traditionally “marginalized” women.
Crossing the thin line! The power dynamics of female community leaders in a Jamaican squatter settlement
Author: Sheere Brooks
The tourism industry in Jamaica has become the key sector for economic growth for the island for nearly 20 years. Recent infrastructure development across the island, such as the North coast Highway, is expected to create easier transportation links between the main resort towns (while bringing emerging resort areas into the larger picture) and broadening and diversifying the holiday experience of visitors to the island. As the national tourism policy agenda calls for the expansion of the industry in terms of widening typologies in the tourism product (inclusion of more eco-based tourism activity, cultural tourism, adventure tourism etc.) the expansion of the tourism industry is intertwined with a demand for more land. The continued existence of long established squatter settlements situated in the locality of major resort towns, presents challenges for the State which either lacks the political will or policies to justifiably remove and relocate these communities. Issues: In a country where single parent households is common and particularly in deprived communities such as squatter settlements, this paper will discuss the challenges that female community leaders in these settings face in negotiating the right to remain in their location with government authorities and tourism stakeholders. The study also brings into contention the challenges that tourism as a model of development poses for these women who also happen to be dependent on the industry for their livelihoods. Aim of the Presentation: The subject of this paper is concerned with one aspect of community engagement by focusing on power dynamics in a deprived community setting and it’s functioning in a developing country. Such a scenario will face different types of challenges in confronting spatial development in such a context. The paper will explore the dynamics of power and how this is articulated by these women for the sake of survival; in securing tenure for a community under constant threat of removal and as a coping strategy for these women and their families.