Genere e spazio urbano : Pratiche femministe per una geografia gioiosa

Abstract

This book explores the link between gender and urban space, attempting to incorporate a joyful activism into geographical research and embracing forms of ""self-awareness and self-ignorance"" (Harding 1992) to reconsider established theoretical and methodological approaches and enact research practices informed by liberatory politics (Federici 2023). The author worked together with transfeminist activists in Cagliari and Brussels, socialised as white and cisgender women as her, to observe the urban space by considering the intersection between gender oppression and the privilege of whiteness and cisgenderness. The result is a deeply reflexive book, because the theory it contains is conceived out of the personal experiences and individual histories of the people involved and is marked by a constant questioning of the author's presence and limits; joyful, because it chooses the path of attention by focusing on the relationships between the people involved and embracing feminist practices of parody; political, because it offers both individual and collective representations that express how power relations work in urban space. Parody is the feminist practice for a joyful geography that the author and participants chose to critically imitate discrimination and create three collaborative short films, entitled: ""By Bike She Lives"", on the right to slowness from a feminist perspective; ""Urban Piss-Ups"", on the act of urinating in public space as a metaphor for the right to the city; and finally ""Freedom for Jeanneke-Pis"", on the symbolism associated with sexist public representations. While the individual cartographies contribute to a theoretical discourse on the city, the films are suitable for public debate, to be discussed, disseminated and used to exercise the right to critique, the right to ask questions and to imagine, think and share urban scenarios other than the existing ones.