Designing Urban Women’s Safety: An Empirical Study of Inclusive Innovation Through a Gender Transformation Lens

Abstract

This article analyzes the use of human-centered design to make urban areas safer for marginalized women. Through an empirical investigation of Amplify, the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) flagship innovation program, I ask to what extent design as a particular inclusive innovation strategy can result in gender-transformative urban safety development. I argue that, on the one hand, the projects supported by Amplify reinforced instrumentalized notions of women’s economic empowerment, while on the other they enabled forward-looking approaches such as the inclusion of men in antiviolence programs. Ultimately, Amplify’s support for mainly small-scale, individualized and technical solutions, which resulted from its use of human-center design, prevented more transformative changes to emerge. At the same time, there are opportunities to “design in” spaces for more structural interventions.