Critical Spatial Thinking in Women's Resilience for An Inclusive City

Isabel Cristina Carvalho

doi:10.33422/jarss.v4i1.688

Abstract

Gender continues to affect how urban spaces are perceived and experienced. Girls and women continue to experience sexual harassment, feel unsafe and conditioned as they live and move in urban environments. Reinforcing the concept "Right to the City" of Henri Lefebvre (1991) and David Harvey (2008), this paper aims to explore the need to promote critical spatial thinking to demystify gender stereotypes, leading to the exercise of active citizenship, able to participate and contribute to the (re)design of an inclusive city. People are social products whose values and beliefs are shaped by society, often perpetuating social practices and norms that promote gender inequalities. It is crucial to enable and encourage critical spatial thinking about women's environment to understand and recognise existing limitations and constraints. The desire for change begins with awareness of the situation in which we live. Several authors refer to critical thinking as fundamental to the empowerment process, pointing out that by exercising critical reflection on the situation, women challenge gender inequality. The exercise of critical spatial thinking also highlights the need for new communication processes that recognise and enhance the importance of showing and share individual perspectives in the use of urban spaces. It will enrich a more active collective voice, increase civic participation necessary to build safer and gender-equal spaces in urban life.

Highlights

In the global context, in terms of gender equality, the Beijing Declaration (1995) and its Platform for Action were established to eliminate obstacles to women's active participation and promote their empowerment - as a strategic area to promote human rights and citizenship and more just society
A literary selection was made in scientific research platforms, as well as in internet search engines using the keywords "collaborative mapping", "critical spatial thinking", "mapactivism", "feminist activism", and "active citizenship"
The repercussion of projects has demonstrated how critical spatial thinking is related to the experimentation of new communication processes that recognize and reinforce the relevance of individual perspectives in urban spaces that can enrich a more active and activist collective "voice"

Summary

Introduction

In terms of gender equality, the Beijing Declaration (1995) and its Platform for Action were established to eliminate obstacles to women's active participation and promote their empowerment - as a strategic area to promote human rights and citizenship and more just society. There was a significant achievement at the legislative level, it is still not reflected in real changes at the level of practices, attitudes, and mentalities, with an increase of accusations of gender violence and discriminatory acts against women. On March 4, 2020, the UN, through the United Nations Development Program - Human Development Reports, released its "Social Norms and Gender Index" study (United Nations Development Programme, 2020) related to seventy-five countries (making up about 80% of the world's population), revealing that prejudice against women is widespread. This study concluded that social norms are a real but invisible

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