The Gendered City

Principles of #Feminist Conversational Spaces #Participatorydesign currently operates within a man-made system that has excluded diverse voices for far too long. This is why critically challenging the system itself is the first step toward feminist participation systems. Internalized misogyny and patriarchal structures often shape how #women express themselves, engage, and share their ideas. This is why transforming participation systems is essential to ensuring true feminist engagement and representation. https://lnkd.in/dhtVCVsF

Yesterday, in my Gender Theory in Architectural and Urban Design course I am teaching this semester, I had the privilege of inviting Hans Karssenberg as a guest lecturer. Hans is one of the few people who continuously inspire me, teaching me many inspiring lessons about true #communityparticipation, #placemaking, #urbananthropology, ..... the list goes on and on. In this course, we are exploring urban vulnerability and how communities experience and navigate their environments. Our goal is to reimagine a feminist and gender-equitable future through spatial analysis and design. For this, I have chosen the Kolenkit neighborhood in #Amsterdam as our home for the next few months. We will immerse ourselves in its streets, engaging directly with the community to understand its realities, beyond statistics and indexes questioning its reputation as Amsterdam’s “worst” neighborhood. Through this process, we aim to develop alternative scenarios for equitable futures, challenging conventional urban narratives and envisioning a more #inclusive, #just, and #participatorycity. Thanks to Anna Gasco and Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam for enabling this explorative theme and for Stichting Aminah for hosting us in the kolenkit and doing incredible work with women's communities.

Exploring #FeministPlay A Framework for Learning from the “#FeministPlayground” Rather than following a linear path, it functions as an interconnected system of feedback loops. The Gendered City developed a framework for understanding participation in creating a feminist playground in a gendered city filled with playgrounds that keep being exclusive. From Sense-Making Through Collective Understanding to a Dynamic #Ecosystem of #FeedbackLoops. This framework for feminist play is not a static or linear process but a vibrant system of interconnected feedback loops. Each element learning, sense-making, sharing, and collaboration adapts and responds to the others, creating a self-sustaining cycle. This adaptability ensures continuous evolution and improvement, fostering curiosity, empowerment, and collective growth. The Full Framework Here https://lnkd.in/daZyu2dx https://lnkd.in/dgvBnh-U

#InnovativePlaygrounds for the Feminist Right to Play At The Gendered City we are on a journey of a Playful feminist Innovation. Good #playgrounds designs can help us shape learning and innovation into something more like the natural social magnets of good playgrounds, rather than isolated elements that sit unused and unloved. Playgrounds, when thoughtfully designed, serve as microcosms of inclusion, collaboration, and creativity. They are spaces where people of all ages and abilities can interact, learn, and innovate together. Feminist approaches to #play challenge traditional norms and prioritize inclusive, equitable spaces where everyone can experience joy, creativity, and connection. How the feminist right to play can reshape our cities? We are reimagining #innovativefeministcities https://lnkd.in/dgvBnh-U

Thrilled to have received incredible applications from across the globe! 🌍 The deadline is January 31st, so there’s still time to apply and join our cohort of FEM. DES. Network. City Directors and Co-Directors of The Gendered City. Be part of an inspiring community dedicated to designing, researching, analyzing, and building the feminist cities of the future everywhere, for everyone. 💜 Send your Interest CV, and location. Interviews will commence at the start of Feb.!!

The #FeministCities We Deserve Feminist cities imagine public spaces where women can truly belong spaces that say loud and clear: You are welcome here. You have a place to connect, create, and simply be. These thoughtfully designed urban environments prioritize #equity, #safety, and #inclusion, transforming cities into landscapes where women and marginalized groups can flourish. Check out Innovative Feminist Cities https://lnkd.in/de8Xgxnn

The Feminist City is an Innovative One "Cities must be rebirthed to make women flourish." – Nourhan Bassam For a change today I am imagining and reimagining places for innovation and the concept of innovative feminist cities I wrote about at the Gendered City, where urban spaces are reimagined and restructured to center the experiences and needs of women and marginalized communities. Feminist cities imagine public spaces where women can truly belong—spaces that say loud and clear: You are welcome here. You have a place to connect, create, and simply be. Check the full work on #Feminist Innovative Cities of The Gendered City Here https://lnkd.in/dfQuuY7g

"Feminist placemaking reimagines urban spaces by centering the lived experiences, needs, and aspirations of marginalized groups, especially women and girls. It challenges traditional, male-dominated approaches to urban design, seeking to create environments that are equitable, inclusive, and reflective of diverse realities." Nourhan Bassam of The Gendered City We're grateful to be collaborating with Nourhan and her FEM. DES. Network on networking leadership on #FeministPlacemaking and #PlacemakingForWomen for broader collective learning, advocacy and action. More about her #placemaking related work: https://lnkd.in/dXbmXRUc

Why Post-Growth Must Be Feminist? Post-growth must be inherently #feminist. Why? Feminism challenges the systemic undervaluation of care work, the exploitation of natural resources, and the entrenched inequalities that underpin our current economic systems. Key Feminist Contributions to Degrowth include achieving a society beyond the #growthparadigm requires confronting not only the #capitalist mandate for endless accumulation but also its deeply patriarchal roots. These structures perpetuate exploitation and disproportionately impact marginalized communities, making a feminist critique essential for systemic change. #Feminism within #degrowth is not an end in itself but a necessity born of the imperative to eliminate all forms of hashtag #oppression. Measuring Real Wealth: Feminist economists advocate for abandoning flawed metrics like GDP in favor of indicators that account for unpaid care work, community wellbeing, and ecological health. Models like #GrossNationalHappiness or the Social Wealth Index align with these values, shifting the focus from abstract growth to tangible wellbeing. Read more! https://lnkd.in/dGxf7ZXy

Great article by Nourhan Bassam of how women's involvement does not make it automatically feminist👇Although having women in the room is a step forward, but it’s not the whole story. 🗯️ 👏 The presence of women in any contexts is often celebrated as the biggest victory for gender equality. But let’s pause and ask: does involvement always equal empowerment? Even sometimes on contrary, women in positions of influence can uphold systems that exclude or harm others, consciously or unconsciously. Representation alone isn’t enough! 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲—𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱. If we want real progress, we need to ask: is women’s involvement driving inclusive and transformative change, or just maintaining the status quo? ♎