Gender & Space in the EPW

We are very pleased to inform you that the last issue of Economic and Political Weekly (April 28 - May 4, 2007; Vol. 42, No17) carries three essays which are based on research conducted by the Gender & Space Project at PUKAR (funded by the Indo Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development).

The three essays are as below:

Shilpa Phadke. ‘Dangerous Liaisons: Women and Men; Risk and Reputation in Mumbai’.
This paper interrogates the discourse of safety in public space to argue that making a claim to the right to take risks in public space rather than petitioning for safety might take women further in the struggle to access public space as citizens. The paper also argues that women’s exclusion from public space is linked to the exclusion of other marginal citizens.

Shilpa Ranade. ‘The Way She Moves: Mapping the Everyday Production of Gender-Space’.
This paper examines the everyday practice of gendered public space through an analysis of three ‘mapping' studies conducted in the city of Mumbai. It focuses on how male and female bodies locate themselves in and move through public space in their everyday negotiation of space, in the process participating in the production and reproduction of a hegemonic gender-space.

Sameera Khan. ‘Negotiating the Mohalla: Exclusion, Identity and Muslim Women in Mumbai’.
This essay suggests that the restrictions imposed on Muslim women by their own community are closely linked to the exclusion of the Muslim community as a whole. The essay contends that Muslim women’s capacity to engage risk in public spaces is dependent on their entire community also being able to take similar risks.

The authors would welcome any comments on these essays.

More information on the Gender & Space Project is available at: www.genderandspace.org