Abstract
The conceptualization of cities and urban spaces has been based on a male-centered urban design reproducing spatial models restricting female use of the city. The urban space has been an insecure and many times fearful environment for women to occupy. The research on the geography of fear related to gendered power relations in space has revealed that certain, culturally accepted gender practices of everyday life are reproduced and reinforced through environmental patterns (Koskela 1999; Rose 1993). In Mexico, the recent displacement of men within social or economic hierarchies by women has triggered the loss of the traditional and patriarchal male social dominance. According to the Mexican Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI 2015), the recent incorporation of Mexican women in the symbolic public space of production and policy may have been perceived as subversive triggering violence against women in public spaces. As Quiñones (1998) points out, “[w]ork on the Juárez femicides points out that economic change creates a new woman in society (a bread-earner) but without a corresponding new man (one who accepts the woman’s new status)” (14). INEGI statistics, newspaper articles and feminist webpages describing the situation in Puebla-Tlaxcala area show that the violence toward women in public spaces has been augmenting in urban zones related to industry, commerce and urban mobility. Thus, the present work proposes to explore how the emerging urban gender violence is reconfiguring the city, the urban geography, environmental patterns and the use of the public space by women.
Presenters
Anne Kristiina KurjenojaHead of Department, School of Arts and Humanities, Department of Architecture, Fundación Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
Women, Public Space, Urban Violence
Digital Media
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