Public Spaces are Failing Girls and Women: How Feminist Planning can Learn from Social Innovation

Emelie Anneroth; Sara Ferlander; Tanya Jukkala

doi:10.32891/jps.v9i1.1813

Cover image: Her City mural in Kampala, Uganda

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Published: Oct 30, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v9i1.1813

Keywords:

feminist planning intersectionality marginalised groups social innovation social sustainability

Emelie Anneroth

Sweco

Sara Ferlander

Mälardalen University

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7736-4465

Tanya Jukkala

Mälardalen University

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7338-0695

Abstract

Public spaces are often failing girls and women, with male dominance and a lack of representation being prevalent issues. The 2030 Agenda emphasises the need for safe and accessible public spaces for women, children and other disadvantaged or marginalised groups. Nevertheless, women and girls tend to be neglected in the development of urban areas, and their specific needs and risks are not fully considered. Hence, there is a need for feminist urban planning.
Feminist planning aims to understand, challenge, and change power relations in public spaces, by involving the experiences, needs, and desires of marginalised groups in the planning process in order to create more equal cities. This approach recognises the individual and collective power that women and other disadvantaged groups already possess. Social innovation is an innovative practice for meeting social needs and shares a common goal with feminist planning of promoting social change and increasing power for disadvantaged groups. However, whereas feminist urban planning – and urban planning in general – tend to end when a project has been planned and executed, social innovation has a stronger and more explicit focus on results or impact of the process or project. This is an aspect where feminist planning can learn from social innovation.
By addressing the specific needs of marginalised groups and focusing on results and actual change, feminist planning can contribute to positive social change and empower women and girls in urban development processes. This viewpoint argues that feminist planning can learn from the focus of social innovation on results (i.e. output, outcome and impact of the planning), which has the potential to change planning practices and challenge gendered social norms in order to create more equal, just and socially sustainable public spaces and cities.

How to Cite

Anneroth, E., Ferlander, S. and Jukkala, T. (2024) “Public Spaces are Failing Girls and Women: How Feminist Planning can Learn from Social Innovation”, The Journal of Public Space, 9(1), pp. 109–114. doi: 10.32891/jps.v9i1.1813.

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2024): Let Her Guide You

Section

Viewpoint

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Author Biographies

Emelie Anneroth, Sweco

Emelie is trained as an ethnologist with an international interdisciplinary master's degree in international relations, economic history, and geography. She works at Sweco where she specializes in process management and innovation management, with a focus on developing methods and models for a more equitable urban planning process. She has experience from the think tank Global Utmaning, where she was involved in the #UrbanGirlsMovement project (now Her City) in collaboration with UN Habitat. The project aims to include women and children in the planning processes of their local areas. Emelie has also worked at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), where she developed several method packages for a more norm-critical and innovative urban planning process. She has contributed as an expert in the development of a certification system for equal public spaces, which aims to promote equity and gender equality in planning processes using a human rights-based approach. At Sweco, Emelie works practically with child and social impact assessments, site analyses, safety assessments, and other issues related to social sustainability in urban development. She has extensive experience in analyzing and communicating issues of equality, participation, safety, and accessibility in the built environment. She is also trained and knowledgeable in ethnographic methods such as interviews, observations, and participant observation.

Sara Ferlander, Mälardalen University

Sara Ferlander is an associate professor and senior lecturer in sociology at Mälardalen University and Södertörn University in Sweden. Her research interests include gender, youth, social capital, health, digitalisation, marginalisation, social inequalities and urban sociology. She is currently leading a research project entitled "A City for Everyone? A study of young women's lives in a transforming suburb", financed by the Swedish Research Council. Sara Ferlander has been involved in several international and interdisciplinary research centres and projects, conducting research in Sweden, Scotland and Eastern Europe (Belarus, Russia and Ukraine). In her research, she has been using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Ferlander has also a long experiences of teaching and supervision in sociology at various levels, with a special focus on research methods. Nevertheless, she has also been teaching about topics such as social sustainability, intersectionality and social stratification.

Tanya Jukkala, Mälardalen University

Tanya Jukkala has a PhD in sociology and works as a lecturer in sociology at The school of health, care and social welfare at Mälardalen University. She wrote her thesis on suicide in Russia, using a macro-sociological approach and analyzing historical and modern suicide data. Her research has also focused on inequalities in relation to physical and psychological health as well as health related behavior. She is currently doing research on young women in marginalized urban areas in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition she is currently also working in a research project on suicide in the working population.

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