Living with urban floods in Metro Manila: a gender approach to mobilities, work and climatic events

Abstract

With this paper, I demonstrate the importance of a gendered approach to work-related mobilities, in understanding the linkages between mobilities and urban flooding. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted in the Malate district in Metro Manila, I focus on work-related mobilities of low-income communities, particularly on the impact of floods on urban mobilities. Rather than considering floods as disasters, I conceptualise floods as part of everyday urban life, and demonstrate how climatic conditions traverse the dynamics of home-work linkages, localities and employment in the Urban South. I argue that bridging mobility and climatic conditions from a gender perspective brings forth how the conflicting narratives of confinement and independence are implicated in the everyday lives of the women living in low-income settlements. This eventually challenges current policy representations on the societal impacts of adverse weather and economic conditions on vulnerable communities.

Keywords:

• floods
• gender
• Manila
• urban mobility
• work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author acknowledges the financial support provided by the British Council under the Newton Fund for the project “Sustainable Cities and Resilient Transport”, which this paper draws from. The author also acknowledges the support of all project partners, but especially that of Dr Tim Schwanen and Dr Anna Plyushteva for conducting some of the interviews and insightful discussions on the topic and Dr Neil Stephen Lopez of the De La Salle University for assisting during the fieldwork in Manila. The author would also like to thank Ms Ailsa Allen of the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford for producing the map.

Notes on contributors

Nihan Akyelken

Nihan Akyelken is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford. Previously, she worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Public Policy Group. She obtained her doctorate in Economic Geography from the University of Oxford, and her undergraduate and master degrees from the LSE in the areas of Economics and Philosophy and European Political Economy. Her research focuses on mobility of people and goods, inequalities and access, infrastructure, labour and work.