School of Law academic addresses the gap in young women shaping urban design: special issue
Anna Barker’s special issue of The Journal of Public Space focuses on the young women and girls shaping our future cities.
Dr Anna Barker, Associate Professor in Criminal Justice & Criminology at the School of Law, is guest editor for a special issue of The Journal of Public Space published by City Space Architecture and co-produced with UN-Habitat titled: 'Let Her guide you: Gender and Youth Perspectives on Urban Design and Planning'.
World Cities Day
‘Let Her Guide You’ is published to fall on World Cities Day on 31 October.
The theme of World Cities Day 2024 is ‘Youth leading climate and local action for cities’. Girls and young women make use of #HerCity to advocate for bolder steps and local actions to tackle multiple crises in our cities.
Her City Initiative
The special issue edited by Anna Barker and Luisa Bravo with UN-Habitat and City Space Architecture, is an output of the Her City initiative led by UN-Habitat. This special issue features papers by young academic scholars selected from the Her City Master students alumni network, including case studies of feminist planning and design in Heerlen (The Netherlands), Nairobi (Kenya), Stockholm (Sweden), and Weimar (Germany). It also includes a diverse range of invited viewpoints from campaigners, professionals, and academics advocating for collaborative approaches to urban development with girls and young women, complemented by illustrative case studies from around the globe, including Belgium, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Mozambique, Palestine, Peru, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda, and the United Kingdom.
The issue will be supplemented with additional material: interviews with academics and professionals from around the globe (including Dr Barker) that City Space Architecture brought together for their international 'Imagining Public Space With/For Her' exhibition in Bologna last year.
These outputs will all feed into a new mini- training course for the international Public Space Academy run by City Space Architecture.
World Urban Forum
The Special Issue will also be launched at the World Urban Forum at an 'urban library' event in Cairo on 6 November.
Dr Barker will be speaking at the World Urban Forum as part the launch, see event info: Shaping the public space discourse with unheard, marginalized and young scholars
Safer spaces for women and girls
Dr Barker’s research focuses on how to create parks in which women and girls feel safe and welcome. She is a member of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and the Centre for Law and Social Justice, and can be found on X/Twitter: @Barker1Anna
Just one strand of her engagement work, this special issue and event highlights the importance of young female scholars to capture their sustainable ideas and ambitious targets to help shape our future cities.
