Feminism of care for social relations in the urban space

Abstract

In this paper we note that urban feminism reclaims an organization of spaces for women’s needs, those related to daily life, private and public, hence considers it essential to act for a change in urban design, still predominantly based on patriarchal models. We therefore aim at tracing a design path for a change in city planning that considers the care as an ethical paradigm of social relations which is able to weaken male dominance. Although it is clear how much physical spaces affect social relations and processes, our hypothesis is that, to design change, we need to reveal the social and cultural conditions of those subjects who make urban spaces sensitive to a plurality of needs. Specifically, we assume that women mobilize social relations capable of transforming the urban spaces that have kept them on the margins, and just for this they act for their change. We have observed how the caring relationship, to which women have traditionally been socialized in the private sphere, in our times has moved to the public sphere. We therefore postulate that this relationship could become inclusive of different genders and statuses and, therefore, build those social processes that oppose the reproduction of patriarchal logics in city planning. Care, now a private relational paradigm, would become an ethical and relational paradigm, thus generating a social process that should be considered important for redesigning urban spaces.