Public Spaces and Places and Gendered Intersectionalities in Indian Cities

11.05.2017: Vortrag Prof. Saraswati RAJU PhD

Donnerstag, 11.05.2017, 15 h
Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung
Universität Wien, Universitätsstr. 7/5, 1010 Wien, Konferenzraum

The apriori categorization of space into the public and the private has been criticized especially in the south Asian context. Instead, permeability and blurring of the spatial boundaries has been ardently solicited for in order to capture a comprehensive view of women’s negotiation of the public spaces. Cities are no exceptions. Drawing upon published and unpublished sources, this talk attempts to problematize the issue of blurring of spaces therein and expounds how women’s freedom of mobility in the essentially masculine public spaces and their visibility are articulated around notions of the appropriateness of place and time. It concludes that permeability in spatial boundaries fail to entitle women to greater claim and control over public spaces, their access being still woven around their positioning within the traditionally held societal norms pertaining to gendered stereotyping.


Saraswati Raju is a former Professor in Social Geography at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Her teaching/research interests are in issues related to social development with focus on gendered marginalities in labour market, access to literacy/education/skills, empowerment, and gender and space. She has been at the forefront in introducing gender studies in Indian geography – her Atlas on Women and Men in India has been praised as a landmark in this direction. Her recent co-edited books include Colonial and Post-colonial Geographies of India (2006, Sage Publications), Doing Gender, Doing Geography: Emerging Research in India (2011, Routledge), Gendered Geographies: Space and Place in South Asia (2011, Oxford University Press), and Women Workers in Urban India (2016, Cambridge University Press). Saraswati has received many visiting awards and fellowships including Janet Monk Service Award (2010) and Distinguished Service Award for Asian Geography (2012) by Association of American Geographers.