Feminist perspectives around the table: #2 Public space

Els Huigens (b. 1954), a landscape architect and urban planner, lectured on public space at various women’s shelters in the 1990s, particularly in Roeselare. She also developed ‘social safety checklists’ for Miet Smet, then Minister of Employment and Labour, and responsible for Equal Opportunities Policy: how do you make a station safe? A social housing estate? A street or a square? This commitment ultimately took shape in her design agency, Fris in ’t Landschap.

Julie Van Garsse is director of the progressive women’s movement ZIJkant. From a feminist and socially engaged perspective, she advocates for equal access to economic and political power and to public space. Through projects such as Girls Make The City, she works to rethink the city by enabling girls and women to claim their place.

Esra Aktan is a recently graduated anthropologist who returned to the neighbourhood where she has lived for twenty-five years to conduct her master’s research. In Rotterdam’s Oude Westen district, she used walking interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to analyse how women with a migrant background navigate their sense of safety and belonging in the public space. Her research critically examines the gap between institutional policy and the complex realities of everyday life.

Lena Verlooy is a doctoral researcher at Ghent University and holds a master’s degree in Urban Design and Spatial Planning. In her master’s thesis (2023), she conducted action research into the urban experiences of women with a migrant background in Antwerp North. In addition to her academic work, she is a member of the Ghent University Feminist Collective, which advocates for a more feminist university.