K. Simonsen et D. Vaiou, WOMENS LIVES AND THE MAKING OF THE CITY - EXPERIENCES FROM NORTH AND SOUTH OF EUROPE, International journal of urban and regional research, 20(3), 1996, pp. 446
In mainstream debates on 'the urban question', both at the peak period
of the 'new urban theory' in the 1970s and in the more recent. analys
es of urban restructuring, certain biases can be observed along the fo
llowing two lines of argument. First, there is a deprioritization of t
he social practices and social lives of urban citizens as relevant dim
ensions in urban development. Second, the dominant themes, pertaining
to be gender-neutral, are nonetheless based on the value of the adult
male's activities and experiences of urban development. In this paper,
we begin our enquiries with women's lives and women's experiences and
forward an approach that sees urban space as both peopled and gendere
d. An emphasis on everyday practices and experiences leads us to a met
hodological approach which proceeds through different levels of abstra
ction - from descriptions of women's lives, through empirical analysis
of the lives of groups of women, towards the development of conceptua
l dimensions by the help of which urban development and women's roles
in the making of the city can be approached and interpreted. In order
to think through these levels and develop (a first approximation of) r
elevant conceptual categories, we draw from two historically and geogr
aphically different contexts of urban development: women's lives from
parts of the cities of Copenhagen and Athens. This way of proceeding f
rom concrete experiences to more abstract concepts and taking gender s
eriously, we would argue, reshuffles priorities and leads to a differe
nt understanding of urban structure and urban development.