On infrastructure repair and gender politics: A more global view from Tallinn, Estonia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the role of conflict in challenging dominant, heteropatriarchal structures of urban development and infrastructure governance through the case of Reidi Road in Tallinn, Estonia. Applying a critical gender lens informed by post-socialist and post-colonial discourses, the study examines the formation of the Reidi Road project through shifting political economic regimes and modes of spatial restructuring along with its contestation by an activist network led by women who encounter and negotiate gender-based identities and politics in a context where feminism is stigmatized by historical associations with coloniality. The paper analyses the situated and relational experiences, concerns, and contentions of the women activists with respect to car-centric mobility infrastructures and built environments and their efforts to shift public decision-making. Partly undertaken as a reflective practice by the women activist leaders, the paper concludes with takeaways for continued struggles and gains toward more inclusive and equitable urban futures.