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Research project A powerful discourse has developed concerning the importance of safe cities particularly for women. The documentation and the discussions concerning planning for a safe and gender equal city or local community express women’s insecurity and fear in terms of a democratic problem and locate its roots in the unequal power relations in society, men’s violence towards women and women’s fear of that violence.
This project focuses on what we call the analytical-practice-paradox which addresses the clash between these two contrasting discourses on gender and fear in public space. It can be summarized in terms of a separation between the long-term project to equalize power relationships between women and men, and short-term measures to change the experiences of places and perceptions of fear. The project’s overall aim is, thus, to investigate this analytical-practice-paradox within local planning practices and initiatives on fear and safety in the public space. Scrutinizing this paradox will provide an opportunity to develop theoretical tools for studying processes of implementation when complex power relations are at play. At the same time, the results will create the basis for a policy on (and implementation within) urban safety that moves from dealing with the effects of the problem to focusing on the causes.
Marcus och Marianne Wallenbergs stiftelse