ABSTRACT
The spatialities of feminist urban politics are investigated by combining the concept of multiple converging spatialities of contentious politics with the recent literature on policy mobilities and urban movements. The research begins with the hypothesis that networks are significant mediators of feminist urban politics, but their effects depend on other, converging spatialities as well. The presented case study of the Viennese Fair Shared City model illustrates the value of such analytical perspective. The results indicate that this model is deeply rooted in the Viennese environment, challenged by its recent transformation, unevenly circulating through various scientific and policy networks across the Central and Eastern Europe region.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author owes a special thanks to colleagues from the Institute of Landscape Planning (ILAP), University of Natural Resources and Life Science, Vienna, for hosting me, providing valuable insights, sharing their expertise in gender planning and supporting the research project. The research also benefited from the openness of the gender planning experts from the city of Vienna and their willingness to participate. The author is also truly grateful to the reviewers and editors for their constructive comments and time invested in this paper.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 By UN-HABITAT.
2 Mercer’s annual quality-of-living ranking.
3 The interview with policy actor 1 (an urban planner) was crucial because this actor was a focal point of all local and international activities related to gender mainstreaming in Vienna. Policy actor 2 (a gender expert) was also a strategic transfer agent, both locally and extra-locally.
4 The results of the focus group discussion are included in the analysis, but without specific quotations.
5 Sassen (Citation2012) believes Vienna can emerge as one of the critical actors in the global arena because it has the critical mass and mix of institutions long devoted to social issues and justice for the powerless.
6 Red Vienna (German: Rotes Wien) was the nickname of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city was democratically governed for the first time (Wikipedia).
7 Policy actor 1, female, personal interview.
8 Scientific actor, female, personal interview.
9 Scientific actor, female, personal interview.
10 According to Dangschat and Hamedinger (Citation2009), this is possible because of the long-lasting clientelist relationship between citizens and local government.
11 Policy actor 1, female, personal interview.
12 Scientific actor, female, personal interview.
13 Policy actor 1, female, personal interview.
14 Policy actor 2, female, personal interview.
16 FemCities. http://www.femcities.at/.
17 See http://www.femcities.at/herstory.
18 For the full list of members, see http://www.femcities.at/network-partners.
19 Policy actor 2, female, personal interview.
20 See http://www.femcities.at/herstory.
21 Policy actor 2, female, personal interview.
22 Policy actor 1, female, personal interview.
23 Policy actor 2, female, personal interview.
24 Policy actor 1, female, personal interview.
26 See https://www.arl-net.de.
27 Women for Public Space, Prague http://www.wpsprague.com/.
28 Mixer House, Belgrade.
30 See http://house.mikser.rs/galleries/konferencija-osetljivi-grad-na-mikser-festivalu-2016-3-dan/.
31 There is no space here for a detailed analysis of a specific peripheral perspective. Related conclusions were drawn with the reference to theoretical works on gender policies in a (semi-)peripheral context developed by Blagojević Hjuson (Citation2015) and applied to the peripheral urban context by Pajvančić-Cizelj and Hugson (Citation2018).