The gendered nature of urban space, placemaking processes and landscape planning

Abstract

With growing evidence of social institutions furthering an interconnected notion of normatively gendered behaviour and differentiation across urban space, there is a pivotal need for comprehending social stratification in relation to particular urban gender roles and ethical identities in placemaking processes and landscape planning. This research shows that the urban gendering of ethical citizenship, civic spaces and landscape planning, in addition to the civic institutions of urban performance, are pivotal in gender unfolding throughout sociopolitical power and contributes to the literature by indicating that gendered relationships enable the organizing principles of spatial urban performance and placemaking processes. Throughout October 2022, a quantitative literature review of the Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest databases was performed, search terms including “urban space + gender”, “placemaking processes + gender”, and “landscape planning + gender”, that is, the most employed words or phrases in the inspected literature. As research published between 2018 and 2022 was investigated, only 424 articles met the suitability criteria. By excluding unconvincing or imprecise findings, outcomes unsubstantiated by replication, too inconclusive content, or having comparable titles, 88 empirical sources were selected. The intricacy and multifaceted character of gendered meanings, networks, and ideologies of urban geography and landscape planning, together with gender politics, codes, positions, roles and relations, shape the spatialization of urban etiquette. Spatially specific rules of power fashion the gendered map of urban landscapes, and thus the social construction of gendered patterns and gender divisions, composition and performance develop the gendering of spatial organizations and the construction of gender and of the social relations of sexuality as an urban performance and placemaking process. Further developments should clarify whether gendered power relations, norms and institutions can be articulated and configured within deeply inscribed contexts of urban performance, thus normalizing sexual identity, social distinction and reshaped behaviour.