PhD student Sara Escalante (SCARP) recently gave a remarkable talk about the needs of marginalized constituencies in the Latin American production of urban space. Her presentation, part of a larger collective project with Col·lectiu Punt 6, walked the audience through an urban audit commissioned by the city of Cali, Colombia. In explaining the specificities of place as an object always transversed by conflict, antagonistic interests and the hetero brilliantly analyzed by Michel Foucault, Sara produced a comprehensive reading of a city that poses every challenge for the planner; specially, for those who like Sara, are mindful of a multiplicity of microevents as experienced by groups -about whom designers usually give little thought: sexual minorities, sexual workers, slum dwellers, women, afro-colombians.

Sara’s voice in the context of a highly and thoroughly masculinized (and bureaucratized) profession such as Architecture and Urban Planning, was truly refreshing and stimulating in that it makes us uncomfortably aware of the dynamics of power (micro and otherwise) that still determine and oppress certain bodies in the urban space. In this sense, to approach a subject, a social problem, an issue from the methodological feminism exposed and espoused by Sara is to discover how the former can address not only explicit women’s concerns but those of the whole social fabric improving the city for all.

We look forward to hear about the city’s adoption of Sara and Col·lectiu’s recommendations.

Thank you all for attending.

And thank you Sara!

 

Please join us for the next meeting of the Latin America and the Global research group where we will discuss Sara Ortiz’s research in Cali, Colombia. 

Sara is conducting her PhD in the School of Community and Regional Planning. She works with Col·lectiu Punt 6, a group of feminist planners and architects in Barcelona interested in rethinking the built environment from a gender perspective. Her dissertation discusses how planning affects everyday/everynight life of women working at night, and in particular, the impact of gender violence, safety issues and transportation.

When: February 15th, 2017 – 1:00-3:00 pm.

Where: Liu Institute for Global Issues – Research Unit 

“Urban safety from a feminist perspective in Cali, Colombia”

In 2014, Col·lectiu Punt 6 in collaboration with the city of Cali, Colombia and diverse women’s groups conducted a safety audit from a gender perspective, in particular applied to public housing projects. In this presentation, she will present the work developed in Cali and the audit results.
Col·lectiu Punt 6 is a cooperative of feminist architects, sociologists and urban planners based in Barcelona, Spain that works on urban planning projects from an intersectional gender perspective. www.punt6.org

See you there!