Migrant women in Medellín and their gendered right to the city

How do migrant women in Medellin, especially mothers and heads of household, negotiate their ‘right to the city’ – the right to access the resources of the city and the right to shape and change the city (Harvey 2012)? Through an analytical lens of place-making, this research will explore migrant women’s right to the city with a special focus on their everyday socio-spatial mobilities, their access to public goods and resources, and how they manage their private and economic lives. It will do so by collecting data through a participatory action research design that includes the migrant women of this study into the research design, data collection and dissemination process. Data will be collected through research methods such as focus groups, (life history) interviews and workshops as well as visual methods such as mapping, participatory photographing and filming.

This research will contribute significantly to the capacity building of cities by generating new research to find solutions to contemporary and future urban challenges. Theoretically this research will contribute by developing an innovative framework that explores the right to the city through migrant women’s place-making strategies and everyday (im)mobilities. Empirically this research will provide important new insights about migrant women’s needs in relation to the use of urban space and provide vital information for the transformation of urban space and future urban development from a gender perspective. Therefore this research aims at contributing to the creation of more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities (SDG 11) by investigating how migrant women in Medellin, particularly migrant mothers who are heads of households, claim their ‘right to the city’. 

This project is funded by the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation, Germany.