Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Urbanists have lately stressed on improving women’s engagement with public spaces to improve their participation in urban life, however there are limited studies that built understanding of engagement with public spaces and its measurement. This research introduces a theoretical framework to measure women’s engagement with public spaces by systematically investigating the factors that contribute to it. The research identifies three categories of factors i.e., contextual, perceptual and behavioral, respectively associated with physical settings, experience and the responding behavior of the users, that can influence women’s engagement with public spaces. The factors are systematically organized into a framework which further needs inputs by public space stakeholders i.e., users, experts and researchers. The framework created can be further applied to study any public space to measure users’ engagement with the public spaces and gender differences if any. Consequently, urban policies focusing on factors that contribute to more women’s engagement with public spaces can be suggested for curating inclusive public spaces.

Presenters

Arshi Parashar
Assistant Professor, Architecture and Planning, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India, Madhya Pradesh, India

Harshit Sosan Lakra
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee