Black women’s perspectives on neighborhood safety: Reflections from The Women of Northeast Oklahoma City Photovoice Project

Abstract

This paper presents findings from the Women of Northeast Oklahoma City Photovoice Project, an action research initiative of 26 African American women co-researchers who photograph their neighborhoods to understand and expose unmet safety needs in their community. The co-researchers’ findings suggest that the intersectional experience of Black women’s safety is underappreciated in safety scholarship and participatory policy making and that meaningful knowledge production must be recentered and guided by Black women themselves. We argue: 1) That the co-researchers findings suggest that neighborhood safety perceptions cannot be disentangled into discrete individual or demographic modifiers and that the emphasis on individual experience within safety scholarship has the potential to erase the intersectional political and spatial identity of Black women. 2) That participatory safety methods that focus on individuals’ recommendations or which focus narrowly on fixes to the built form will miss meaningful aspects of women’s socialspatial lives. 3) Ultimately, the discourse within the project lead the co-researchers toward political and economic solutions and an understanding that positive change will occur only when they gain control of the tools of urban development and the participatory processes that create urban policy.

Keywords:

• Black women
• intersectionality
• neighborhood safety
• photovoice
• participatory planning

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the following funders: The University of Oklahoma (OU) Humanities Forum, OU Gibbs College of Architecture, OU Women and Gender Studies, and OU African and African American Studies. Additionally, we would like to thank all 26 co-researchers for their dedicated work and commitment to their community. Finally, thank you to the anonymous reviewers who helped improve this paper.

Additional information

Funding

University of Oklahoma Women and Gender Studies; University of Oklahoma College of Architecture; Humanities Forum University of Oklahoma; University of Oklahoma African and African American Studies.

Notes on contributors

Denyvetta Davis, Cheree Harris, Venita Johnson, Cheryl Pennington, Cresha Redus, Tiffani Sanders and Net-Hetep Ta-Nesert are community activists and co-researchers in the photovoice project. Gina Sofola is a Research Fellow at the University of Oklahoma and urban planning professional in Oklahoma City. Vanessa Morrison is also a Research Fellow and gender-based violence prevention professional in Oklahoma City. John Harris is an Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma. Eyakem Gulilat is a doctoral student and research assistant at the University of Oklahoma.