Digital Counter-narratives for Inclusive Spaces

Resumo

Many cities still reflect patriarchal logics that perpetuate gender inequalities in everyday socio-spatial appropriation and practices. These practices do not align with what is necessary to achieve the United Nations Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), pointing to the need to identify and address the conditions that limit inclusive urban experiences. This study explores the role of digital counter-narratives in identifying and challenging gendered power dynamics within urban spaces. The main objective is to investigate how digital activism and feminist counter-narratives challenge patriarchal spatial appropriations influenced by misogynistic norms, ultimately promoting more inclusive and equitable spaces. The theoretical discussion explores how digital counter-narratives challenge the exclusionary dynamics of urban spaces, crossing urban studies, gender studies, and digital activism. The research employs qualitative case study approaches to analyse two feminist activist movements, “Girls at Dhaba’s” and “Chalk Back,” and their potential to promote critical analysis of spatial experiences to deconstruct norms that perpetuate the exclusion and harassment of women in public spaces. Both projects operate locally and use images and social networks to document as a form of resistance and resilience. The reflections point to counter-narratives as a way of documenting lived experiences and facilitating new forms of participation and expression of territorial citizenship in dialogue with digital citizenship in demanding an inclusive city. This study offers new perspectives on the contribution of digital counter-narratives to research and the production of situated knowledge for inclusive urban spaces and the need for more studies on feminist research methodologies at the intersection of technology and activism.