Gender and the City. Ethnographic Perspectives of Urban Research on Space and Gender

This semester we are very looking forward to teaching a university course on “Gender and the City” at the Geography Department at Humboldt-University of Berlin. The course includes basic academic texts on gender and the city, which are dealing with the complexity of spatial practices, appropriation, visibility and security in public-urban space. From an ethnographical perspective, the course aims to carry out student’s field studies, experimenting with various urban ethnographic methods.

To get started on the topic have a look at the first text “Gender, urban space, and the right to everyday life” by Yasminah Beebeejaun (2017).

Abstract: “Gender remains a neglected focus for theory and practice in shaping cities. Given women’s continuing economic and social marginalization and the prevalence of violence against women, how can this be the case? Despite several decades of feminist scholarship, dominant perspectives within the “the right to the city” literature pay little attention to how “rights” are gendered. In contrast, feminist and queer scholarship concerned with everyday life and the multiple spatial tactics of marginalized city dwellers reveal a more complex urban arena in which rights are negotiated or practiced. This article suggests that a fuller recognition of the contested publics that coexist within the contemporary city and the gendered mediation of everyday experiences could enable planners and policy makers to undertake more inclusive forms of intervention in urban space.”

Citation: Beebeejaun, Yasminah (2017): Gender, urban space, and the right to everydaylife, Journal of Urban Affairs, 39:3, 323-334, DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2016.1255526.