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Date and time: Tuesday 20th June 2006 6.00–8.00pm
(Registration)
Wednesday 21st June 2006, 9.30am–8.00pm
Venue: Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal
Green, London E2
This one-day seminar was the culmination
of the ESRC-funded series on Capital Designs: Women
and Planning in Contemporary London, convened by the
London Women and Planning Forum.
Click here to download
Seminar flyer
Speakers
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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