OPPRESSION, KNOWLEDGE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Urban places are not neutral in their impacts on people's lives. Some environments are oppressive and in certain cases this oppression is co ntested as people struggle to improve their day-to-day lives. These co ntests are implicated in the changing forms of our cities. The multipl e forms that oppression might take are examined and then the potential responses we see to oppressive situations are outlined. In doing so, the question is asked: whose visions, or knowledges, are being used to map urban form? How do urban landscapes reflect the responses of the oppressed to the hegemonic power structures in which they are socializ ed? How is the welfare state involved in the production, reproduction and transformation of oppressive and/or just urban landscapes? The exa mple of women's struggles to make cities less threatening illustrates the ways in which the efforts of the oppressed might transform citysca pes