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Women, Planning and Design: International Perspectives

This one-day seminar is the culmination of the ESRC-funded seminar series on ‘Capital Designs: Women and Planning in Contemporary London,’ convened by the London Women and Planning Forum.

20 June 2006 Wine Reception 6.00 pm – 8.00 pm

21 June 2006 Seminar, 9.30 pm – 6.00 pm

21 June 2006 Dinner in Brick Lane

Registration fee (including lunch):
Waged £15
Unwaged £5
Dinner in Brick Lane £10

Please send a cheque payable to Queen Mary, University of London, to Claire Frew, with details of any special dietary requirements.

ABSTRACTS

Christiane Droste

GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN BERLIN URBAN DEVELOPMENT – THE PILOT PHASE OF AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT

Most German municipalities recognize gender-sensitive urban planning and governance as an instrument to secure quality, but form and intensity of the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming are still to a large extend depending on informal knowledge-transfer, personal gender-competence and the fields of action and power of the respective responsible persons. In this context, the relation of EU-policies and national and local reality is of interest: which have been the relevant steps in governmental policies, what has been achieved on the city / local level? The Berlin state government decided in 2002 to mainstream gender in its policies, starting with a three year pilot-project. The steering instruments are a Gender Mainstreaming Office (overall coordination), a State Secretary and Expert Commission (targeting above all Gender Budgeting) and a Districts Steering Committee (coordination and knowledge-transfer). Part of the process is the establishment of twelve pilot projects, amongst other to be carried out in the Senate department for Urban Development. The lecture shall delineate to what extend gender has become an issue of urban development in Berlin, what promoted such understanding and which are the obstacles to further implementation.

Christiane Droste, researcher in cultural and social sciences, was born 1963. Stage-designer (1987-90), studies in art and cultural sciences, Berlin University of Arts (1991-98). Doctoral thesis about women architects in Berlin from 1949-1969 (from 1999, since 2005 at Westminster University, London). Visiting scholar at the International Women’s University project area City and Gender (2000). From 02/2001 until 11/2005 EU research projects NEHOM (Neighbourhood Housing Models) and RESTATE (Restructuring Large Housing Estates) at the Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS), Erkner/Berlin. Free lancer at the “Giornale dell’ Architettura“, Turin (since 2002). Teaching assignment on integrated urban development at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (2002/03), building the curriculum for / managing a further education programme to neighbourhood-management (to be started in 04/2006). From 01/2006 free lancer, amongst other working for gender+ (consultancy on Gender Mainstreaming in urban development) and the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning.

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Bronwen Hamilton, Lecki Ord and Melinda Wealands

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR WOMEN

Arising out of an objective in the latest Victorian government planning strategy (Melbourne 2030), the Women’s Planning Network (WPN) has been investigating what "the provision of well located, affordable housing" means for women.

A scoping paper prepared to assemble recent Australian research on the subject has shown that affordable housing is essential for social as well as economic reasons, and it is access to safe housing, education and transport which is essential for women, children and youth to make the most of their educational and social opportunities. Furthermore, this paper confirmed that women-headed households are particularly vulnerable to being squeezed out of the housing market due to lower incomes, and this affects not only the women themselves, but their children - and the shape of our future community.

This research has also provided the springboard for the WPN to refine and concentrate its further research on this topic within the context of how planning and design can be, or break down, the barriers to the housing market for women. The ultimate goal is to produce a set of qualitative guidelines and design ‘tools’ for use by potential housing providers and governments in planning for and delivering affordable housing. The second stage of the research will occur in April and May 2006, with results and findings available for presentation late May / early June.

Bronwen Hamiton is a senior urban designer at Hansen Partnership in Melbourne and she holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Master of Urban Design. Communities and the way they work and interact are some of Bron’s special interests. She has formulated guidelines for communities in a variety of locales in Melbourne and regional Victoria. She has also worked on streetscape and laneway character studies. Amongst this busy work schedule, Bron has also taken maternity to leave for the birth of her 2 children and combines child raising with part-time work.

Over her 40-year architectural career Lecki Ord has concentrated on the "front end" of projects, particularly the planning of tertiary educational institutions and architectural briefing for complex public buildings. She also developed and managed a major childcare centre building program in the mid 80's and the standard computer based architectural briefing system for government accommodation in Victoria in the early 90s. She is currently working at the City of Melbourne as a project manager of urban design projects, a project for the design and installation of a pedestrian signage system for the Commonwealth Games in central Melbourne and surrounds. In between time Lecki spent 6 years as a councillor of the City of Melbourne; was the first female Lord Mayor in 1988 and was a founding member of the Women's Planning Network in 1995.

Melinda Wealands is an urban designer and planner from Melbourne, Australia. Melinda works for EarthTech in central Melbourne, and is involved in many facets of urban design and development in Melbourne and regional areas of Victoria, particularly associated with housing. Melinda is also Vice President of the Women’s Planning Network (WPN), which is a network of and for women in the town planning and allied professions in Melbourne and regional Victoria. One of the key goals of WPN is to conduct research into relevant built environment issues , and a key projects of the network in the past 12 months has been to develop a ‘toolkit’ for the provision of affordable housing for women in Victoria.

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Arzu Kocabas

URBAN REGENERATION IN THE SUBURBS OF ISTANBUL

This paper outlines the emergence of urban regeneration in Istanbul and focuses on the increasing interaction between the planning debate about the need for a Turkish model of planning for sustainable urban development and regeneration and the wider debate about women’s rights. This analysis draws on a cross-national programme of teaching, research and consultancy, which is led by the Anglo-Turkish Planning and Construction Group at London South Bank University.

A range of new policy drivers have recently created the conditions for the emergence of urban regeneration in Istanbul and other Turkish cities: a slow-down of rural-urban migration; the threat of a devastating earthquake; the drive for full EU membership; a stable government and rapidly improving economy. Urban regeneration is being pioneered by the Greater Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (GIMM), increasingly in partnership with the more pro-active District Mayors.

Evolving practice is being influenced by the EU-wide concept of planning for sustainable urban development, which emphasises enhancing the competitiveness of cities in a globalising economy, but in ways which promote social inclusion and improve the environment. A small number of UK academic and practitioners are contributing to this process. In this context, issues relating to the role of women in Turkish society are inevitably being raised as Turkish planning moves beyond its traditional urban design paradigm. A modernised planning system may well eventually make a positive contribution to the improving the position of women in Turkey, but the pace of change will be governed by the wider debates, which are gathering momentum in the context of the EU harmonisation process.

Arzu Kocabas is currently an Assistant Prof. Dr. in the Department of City and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Mimar Sinan University (MSU) in Istanbul. She holds a BSc in architecture from Istanbul Technical University (1984); MSc in urban design from MSU (1989) and PhD in town planning from London South Bank University (2000). She practised for over ten years as an architect based in London, working on a range of projects, including new mews houses, refurbishment and extension work in various locations in London and a new residential complex in Ghana.

Her PhD research, entitled 'Urban Conservation and Development Outcomes in Central Istanbul and Central London', involved a comparative analysis of urban development and planning processes in Turkey and the UK. Her initial post-doctoral work was as a Research Fellow at London South Bank University (LSBU), contributing to projects, which were evaluating the development and impact of regeneration programmes in London. At LSBU she also participated in a UK government supported research action project to develop proposals for a new university in Yalova, as part of the post-earthquake recovery programme work of the British Earthquake Consortium for Turkey, following the 1999 Marmara earthquake.

Her research and teaching was then taken forward in the context of an International Urban Regeneration Studies Programme of post-graduate education and research, established through an academic collaboration agreement between LSBU and MSU. Between 2001 and 2004 she took a leading role in creating an urban regeneration specialism within the MSU City and Regional Planning Masters Programme – the first of its kind in Turkey. In parallel, she was a core member of an international team, which assessed the relevance of UK and EU neighbourhood regeneration experience for the development of urban regeneration and earthquake mitigation programmes by the Greater Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. She also has a continuing interest in comparing the Turkish planning system with both European and Middle Eastern systems, with particular reference to the need to reform the Turkish planning system. Most recently, her research and consultancy work, has focussed on working as a member of an international consortium of consultants preparing strategic development frameworks and designing implementation processes for sustainable urban regeneration and earthquake mitigation, in the context of Turkey’s drive for full EU membership.

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Olusola Olufemi

EXPERIENTIAL INSIGHTS AND CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN PLANNERS IN AFRICA

Based on experiential insights and using anecdotal references from some Sub-Sahara African countries this paper examines the planning content (education and training) and context (environment of planning) as well as the perceptions, expectations and the challenges that the planneress (female planner) encounters in everyday world of planning.

Women planners in Africa are still under represented, negligible in terms of number (they do not constitute the critical mass), physically visible but yet invisible in terms of planning input and outcomes (women’s input sometimes goes unrecognized inspite of the fact that they are making significant planning impressions and expressions); and role models and mentors still remain significantly males in the profession. Women’s experience are undervalued, their knowledge is often excluded in policy, project planning and implementation.

The United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985) and various international women’s conferences in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995) as well as second and third wave feminisms have recognized gender issues and set the pace for a better deal for women. These conferences have continued to define and redefine women’s roles and incorporate women’s issues in the built environment agenda. More recently the Millennium Development Goals of 2000 (MDG #3) emphasizes the empowerment of women and the promotion of gender equality. International planning associations like the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP) have also stepped up its role in promoting gender equality and changing the culture of planning across the Commonwealth through education, training and networking.

Olusola Olufemi was born and raised in Nigeria. She lived in Botswana and South Africa for a few years before relocating to Canada in 2002. She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa where she also lectured. Olusola has researched and published extensively on planning, housing and homelessness in Nigeria and South Africa. Her publications include entries in the Encyclopedia of Homelessness; Lifeworld Strategies of Women who find themselves Homeless (Gerd Albers Award 2005); Feminization of Poverty among Homeless Street Women; Enabling or Debilitating Homes? Home-Based Work of Women; and Women and the Burden of Unsustainable Development: Practice and Policy Contradictions. She was the coordinator of the Women in Planning Network of the Commonwealth Association of Planners from 2000-2004. Until very recently Olusola lectured at the Women’s Studies Program of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Olusola currently does independent research in South Africa and Nigeria.

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Prema Gopalan

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Prema Gopalan presently is the Executive Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog, a learning and development organization based in Mumbai. She is at the forefront in pioneering approach in empowering women's collectives at the grassroots to act as powerful intermediaries to advocate social accountability in disaster to development, public services and institutions and ownership of development resources by communities at the local level. The vision is to bring rural poor women and communities at the centre of decentralized, democratic local planning.

Prema is responsible with an expanding community based network of over 2,597 women’s self-help groups/federations addressing crucial concerns around credit and livelihoods, health and education, water and sanitation, disaster management and infrastructure.

Prema has envisioned SSP as a key player in facilitating concerns of grassroots women’s collectives and communities in national policies and programs focused on promotion of women’s empowerment, poverty reduction and decentralized governance. She has led the team as Consultant to the Government in the World Bank supported post disaster rehabilitation. After the earthquake in Latur (1993), women’s collectives supported by SSP, monitored progress of reconstruction of houses, basic services and ensured that children’s schools were restarted. Later propelled by insights from women’s groups with previous experience from Latur earthquake, the Gujarat women formed savings and credit groups and gained know-how on responding to disasters after the Gujarat earthquake (2001). In the aftermath of South Asia Tsunami (Dec 2004), SSP outreaches to a total of thirty-five tsunami affected villages in two districts of Tamil Nadu. SSP has facilitated grassroots women to transfer innovations to strengthen community response for preparedness by undertaking risk reduction measures that address vulnerabilities – disaster safe shelter, sustainable and alternate livelihoods, access to health, water and sanitation, to address psycho social issues, strengthen social networks to respond and intervene with priorities in mainstream rehabilitation program.

Prema was nominated to the Advisory panel of OED Operations Evaluations Division of the World Bank to critically examine and provide recommendations from evaluation findings of disaster response projects for last twenty years.

Prema is a steering committee member of GROOTS International and Huairou Commission a network of autonomous grassroots women’s organisations across forty countries. She facilitates the Global Working Group on Disasters of the Huairou Commission to link with policy makers and local governments in their countries and moderates a web forum disaster watch.net providing quarterly tsunami updates on communities and disaster response.

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Sophie Nichol Sauvé

WISE TO WANDER?

The proposed paper emerges from research being undertaken as part of a Ph.D. at the Edinburgh College of Art. The investigation comes from the yearning to walk, immersed in thought, through outdoor public space. Despite the improvements in women's status in society in the past century, such as gaining the right to vote, women's access to outdoor public space, and to urban spaces in general, remains problematic and constrained. While some buildings have been upgraded or are now being designed to address concerns with regards to 'universal access', including addressing some perceived safety standards, divergent political economic priorities impede upon even basic management of outdoor public spaces and certainly do not address the spatial needs of an ever-changing socio-cultural demographic, or the specific gendered needs of women.

Starting from the premise that the current cityscape fails to reflect the changing position of women in society, my research seeks to highlight the disconnection between [her]story and the history of major international cities as they have evolved over time.

The paper will seek to give an account of the work thus far, including a reflection on the connections between great women philosophers, and the urban spaces through which they roam(ed).

Sophie Nichol Sauvé is a PhD candidate in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. Her Master's of Landscape Architecture thesis, entitled [de]constructing gender[ed] outdoor public space, allowed her to explore urban enclaves from a woman's perspective, and to begin to identify the issues and barriers that impeded my urban wanderings as a woman. Her interest in the subject of space and the "other" stems from a multi-disciplinary background in development and environmental studies, as well as a strong desire to contribute to the field of knowledge in landscape architecture.

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Susan Parham

WOMEN AND URBANISM: DO WE NEED SOME NEW RULES?

Urbanism has become a hot topic in the last couple of years both in the UK and abroad. But few women seem to be major players in urban governance’s new power partnerships between government, consultants, (quasi)academia, media and business. While these elites are busy shaping city spaces – and building their own power and influence at the same time – is there a place for urbanism that suits the more vulnerable and excluded? In the context of starchitecture, a resurgent modernism in the approach to large scale masterplanning, unelected architecture and design advisors and invitation-only policy forums, should women push for a bigger place for themselves in these processes? Or should we – as architects, planners, designers, artists, policy makers or simply as urban design consumers – decide it’s time to make up some new rules to achieve inclusive urbanism?

Susan Parham is a political economist, town planner and urban designer who works in London for CAG Consultants, a co-op specialising in sustainability, regeneration and stakeholder engagement. Susan is also chair of the Council for European Urbanism. She is completing a PhD on the design relationship of cities and food, in the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics.

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Leela Viswanathan

THE ALTERNATIVE PLANNING GROUP AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIAL PLANNING IN TORONTO, CANADA

The Alternative Planning Group (APG) is a partnership of four social planning organisations representing groups of Chinese, continental African, South Asian, and Latino/Hispanic communities in Toronto, Canada. Since 1998 the APG has developed a variety of social planning activities based on principles and practices of anti-racism, access, and equity. Members of the APG partnership have also promoted civic participation among their respective immigrant and racialised communities. In 2004, the City of Toronto undertook a review of its social planning processes, inviting the APG and several other social planning groups to help the City make improvements to existing processes of social planning. This presentation provides an overview of the APG and its role in the transformation of social planning in Toronto. Drawing examples from the work the APG partners – the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), the Hispanic Development Council (HDC), the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) Toronto Chapter, and the African Canadian Social Development Council – this presentation will show how the APG partners are working on building the capacity of their respective communities so that these communities can engage in their own planning projects.

Leela Viswanathan is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada. Her Ph.D. dissertation explores concepts and practices of planning and social justice in the context of urban diversity through her case study of the Alternative Planning Group (APG), a partnership of four social planning organisations representing groups of Chinese, continental African, South Asians, and Latino/Hispanic communities in Toronto. As a social policy analyst and planner, Leela has worked with Canadian non-governmental organizations and various levels of government to address issues regarding education and training, adult literacy, disability, social inclusion, and immigration. Leela has been a volunteer with the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) since 1998. She served as CASSA’s President from 2001 to 2003.