Is an ‘other’ city possible? Using feminist utopias in creating a more inclusive vision of the future city

Abstract

Visions of the good future city are important in futures studies and urban planning. However, these visions have been criticised for reflecting Western, masculine, heteronormative values rather than diversity, and only allowing some voices to speak and be heard. This highlights the need to develop methods for bringing in 'other' voices and enabling alternative visions to be articulated that contest the ‘straightjacket’ of accepted meanings and ways of being in the city. Here, we present one such attempt using transgressing alternatives of imagining the city drawn from feminist science fiction and utopian writings. These were presented to focus groups of women from different backgrounds in two Swedish cities. The aim was to create a welcoming and safe space for meaning-making that encourage the women to re-imagine their subject positions, challenge the accepted ways of being in the city and picture an ‘other’ future city. This was partially successful in that, in their discussions, the women both accepted and contested the city’s gendered norms and power relations. This reflects the difficulties involved in questioning the existing power relations and norms from a subordinate position, emphasizing the importance of further developing this type of approach in efforts to foster more inclusive cities.