Women’s Safety Between Neo-Liberalization and Re-Writings of Public Spaces

This contribution aims to understand the transformations and at the same time the production of public space through a strategic point of observation: women’s safety. Much research has focused on safety in public space through a gendered lens but without considering co-implications with domestic space. The literature on the relationship between women and safety has increasingly recognized the interactive nature of public and private spaces, and that this interaction is pivotal in understanding gendered social relations. Through a case study on Bolognina neighborhood in Bologna, Italy, the aim is to examine the re-configurations of spaces, looking at women’s practices. For this purpose, I draw on urban theories of social reproduction that keep private and public spaces together in everyday life. This approach shows, on the one hand, the spatialisation of women’s safety and, on the other, how women produce spaces differently and change their meanings.