4 research outputs found

    A City Transformed? Gendering the strategies and experience of urban change in Medellín

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    Ph.D thesisThis thesis contributes a feminist analysis of the urban transformation of Medellín, Colombia. By looking to the everyday experiences and practices in the city and assessing the gender logics that have informed and shaped their urban development strategy, I evaluate the celebrated urban transformation and highlight paradoxes within it. In a city that is globally recognised for its innovative strategies of development and reduction in levels of violence primarily from the ‘turning point’ in 2003, I pay attention to the gender inequalities and gender-based violence that continue to challenge local government and activists alike. The interdisciplinary research is situated within broader scholarship highlighting the gendered everyday of urban space and violence. Feminist scholars have shown how gender is mediated through underpinning political structures of patriarchy and neoliberalism, and how it is situated embodied and experienced in the everyday. I consider each of these dimensions within the city’s institutions and beyond, exploring how gender has informed the policies, planning and successes of the urban transformation, alongside the lived (gendered) experience of the urban landscape. Focusing upon the connected themes of culture, space, and security, I show where and how each fit within a gendered understanding of the city and its policies for change. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork and detailed interviews with activists, government officials and residents I provide a multi-layered account of the urban space and those who shape it. As such this thesis contributes an understanding of the contradictions and fractures that exist between, and underpin, the award-winning policy and the lived experience of the city. By paying attention to the gendered limitations of the urban transformation I show how such changes continue to fall short in truly ‘transforming’ – a process that requires challenging the systems of power including, but not limited to, unequal gender relations

    Housing quality and lost (public) space in Croatia

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    IN ENGLISH: In the post-socialist period and within the current social transition context, urban and rural Croatia has, just like other transition countries, experienced many changes in the social structure and space. One example is the housing quality which is a replica of the situation in the Croatian society and has also undergone some major changes. Socially oriented housing construction co-financed by the state and the cities is in an unfavourable position compared to private housing construction. In the last twenty years the amount of the social housing construction has been only a minor part of the total contruction work in the country. For instance, out of nine newly planned residential housing developments in Zagreb, the capital city, only three have been completed and the work on the rest of them has stopped and is unlikely to continue. Private construction work prevails especially on the edge of the city and is characterised by high density housing. This type of housing construction doesn't benefit the majority of citizens in search of accommodation (price per square meter is too high, low-quality building). There is also a big problem of the community facilities (primary and secondary infrastructure, schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, green areas, sidewalks, public transport etc.). The existing globalisation-transition circumstances of the Croatian society corroborate the fact which experts of various profiles often point out: ignoring the process of (urban) planning will irreparably damage the space. The city transformation shows the absence of comprehensive urban planning which results in an ever increasing number of random buildings which do not fit in the surroundings. This leads up to yet another important issue – the shrinking and, in some cases, disappearance of public space which becomes the “lost space“. In recent years there has been a lot of building in the city core and on the edge which does not quite fit in the existing urban structure, image or the skyline of the city. The current situation in the process of planning can be characterized as a conflict and imbalance between the powerful actors (mostly political and economic) and less powerful actors (mostly professional and civil). The actors who have the political power and influence and the ones who possess the capital are forming an “alliance” between two important layers of the social structure. The lack of civil and professional actors, “lost spatial actors”, and therefore of civic aggregation is also present and that is also the cause of public space “disappearance” and undermined process of public participation. --------------- IN CROATIAN: U postsocijalističkom razdoblju i trenutnom tranzicijskom kontekstu urbana i ruralna Hrvatska su, kao i ostale tranzicijske zemlje, doživjele mnoge promjene u društvenoj strukturi i samom prostoru. Na primjeru kvalitete stanovanja kao replike stanja u hrvatskom društvu mogu se vidjeti značajne promjene. Društveno usmjerena stambena izgradnja sufinancirana od strane države i gradova je stoga rjeđa i u nepovoljnijoj je situaciji prema privatnoj stanogradnji. Zadnjih dvadeset godina udjel socijalne stambene gradnje je zanemariv u ukupnoj izgradnji na razini zemlje. Primjerice, od devet planiranih stambenih naselja izgrađenih po modelu POS-a u Zagrebu samo su tri i završena. Na ostalima je proces gradnje zastao i ne čini se da će se privesti kraju. Privatna je gradnje prisutnija, posebno na rubovima grada, a obilježava je visoka gustoća gradnje. Ovakav tip gradnje ne odgovara većini stanovnika koji su u procesu potražnje stambene nekretnine (visoka cijena kvadratnog metra, a slaba kvaliteta gradnje). Postoji također i problem nedostatne opremljenosti susjedstva (primarna i sekundarna infrastruktura, škole, vrtići, igrališta, zelene površine, pješačke staze, javni transport itd.). Navedene globalizacijsko-tranzicijske okolnosti hrvatskog društva potvrđuju ono što eksperti različitih profila ističu, a to je da će ignoriranje procesa (urbanog) planiranja nepovratno uništiti prostor gradova. Ovakve transformacije pokazuju nedostatak sustavnog urbanog planiranja što rezultira sve većim brojem zgrada koje se ne uklapaju u neposrednu okolinu. To nadalje dovodi do drugog važnog aspekta – smanjivanja i u nekim slučajevima, nestanka javnog prostora koji postaje „izgubljeni prostor“. Posljednjih je godina izgrađen velik broj zgrada, i u središtu i na rubovima grada, koje se ne uklapaju u postojeću urbanu strukturu, izgled ili vizuru grada. Ovakvu situaciju obilježavaju sukob i neravnoteža između moćnijih društvenih aktera (većinom političkih i ekonomskih) i onih manje moćnih (većinom profesionalnih i civilnih). Politički i ekonomski akteri se često povezuju u „savez“ dvaju najjačih u društvenoj strukturi. S druge strane nedostatak utjecaja civilnih i profesionalnih aktera kao „izgubljenih prostornih aktera“ dovodi do „nestanka“ javnih prostora te smanjenja važnosti procesa participacije (sudjelovanja javnosti)

    Mobilisation and insurgent citizenship of the Anti-Privatisation Forum, South Africa: An ethnographic study

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    This thesis examines the mobilisation practices of one of the largest social movement organisations to have emerged in post-apartheid South Africa, the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF). Making a contribution to the growing field of scholarship on the global justice movement, this thesis presents an analysis of the micro-levels of mobilisation in order to provide a deeper understanding of the everyday forms of resistance articulated and enacted by the APF and its affiliated community-based organisations. Locating itself within the political process paradigm as developed by Doug McAdam (1982, 1996), Sidney Tarrow (1988, 1994, 1998) and Charles Tilly (1978, 2008), the study of micro-processes of mobilisation is advanced through an analysis of the interaction between mobilising structures, political opportunities and framing, in order to tease out the internal political, strategic and organisational differences within the APF. I propose that the APF and its affiliates should be conceptualised as a ‘social movement community’, arguing that such a conceptualisation places a critical focus on the significance of political scale, the importance of space and place as well as a consideration of the political, social and cultural aspects of collective action. By combining perspectives from social movement theory with a Gramscian perspective on resistance and counter-hegemony, this thesis presents an empirically and theoretically grounded analysis of the conditions which both facilitate and constrain the emergence and practice of transformative collective action. With a close focus upon the internal practices of mobilisation, the analysis presented contributes to a flourishing field of scholarship which analyses social movements as alternative public spaces in which individuals contest dominant practices of citizenship and democracy and forge potentially counter-hegemonic relations. Utilising James Holston’s (1998, 2008, 2009) concept of ‘insurgent citizenship’ this thesis examines the paradoxes of the post-apartheid democratic settlement, where the constitutional rights which have been extended to all sections of the polity have been undermined by neoliberal policies which have resulted in the privatisation of basic services and reshaped relations between the citizen and the state. Furthermore, as I will demonstrate, the quality and experience of democracy post-apartheid has also been undermined by increasing violence and inefficiencies within the justice system. This thesis argues that social movements provide important spaces for the alternative practice of citizenship and democracy in which socio-economically marginalised groups seek not only to be accommodated within the polity but also challenge the economic, political and social foundations upon which the polity is built. However, while social movements may offer progressive challenges to hegemonic relations through the course of collective action it is also possible that some forms of inequalities will become further entrenched. Thus, the analysis which follows offers a critical account of the insurgent citizenship practices of the APF which considers how some forms of inequalities, particularly in relation to gender, may become entrenched through the processes of mobilisation

    The power of resistance : women's organizations and institutional restorative justice in Nova Scotia

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    v, 160 leaves ; 29 cm.Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-154).This thesis interrogates a case of feminist engagement with the state in order to grapple with the research question: where do women's organizations fit in contemporary conditions of governance? The case under study involved a consultation between the Nova Scotia government and a coalition of provincial women's organizations around the provincial restorative justice program. This thesis situates the "success" of the women's groups in this process in the contexts of neoliberalism and the marginalization of the women's movement in Canada. Thusly situated, it was a fertile source of data for examining concepts around women's organizations' role in the governance of gendered violence. The analysis was done using govemmentality theory. I argue that the two groups possessed certain mentalities around engagement that influenced the policy outcomes. This research suggests a more nuanced conceptualization of power and resistance is necessary when thinking about women's organizations' role in governing gendered violence
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