Mapping the Presency of Women in Cities Image by May East

Recently I have been researching how innovative ways of mapping the ‘presency’ of contemporary women in cities may support the emergence of emancipatory placemaking perspectives and previously unrecorded narratives. Adopting a WOL - Working Out Loud -perspective, I am sharing my work-in-progress findings for input, feedback and reflections.

What is Presency?

I propose ‘presency’ as a new concept that blends the words presence and agency and combines both meanings. The concept adopts the Heideggerian perspective of presence experienced in the now and/or in the timeless aspect of the eternal now. It also considers the Buddhist view of presence as a mindful way of paying attention to life, moment by moment. It considers agency as critical awareness of the context and capacity to act.

“The moment you realise you are not present, you are present.”
Eckhart Tolle

The concept of agency has been debated since the Enlightenment. Today, in social sciences, there are a thousand ways to describe agency interpreted as the individual or collective ability to make choices, motivation to act on your own will, purposiveness, intentionality, initiative, freedom and creativity.

For Paulo Freire, we find two dimensions within each word: reflection and action. The emphasis on reflection over action leads to rhetorical verbalism, while poor reflection in detriment to action generates shallow activism which does not uproot the root causes of social dysfunctions. Therefore, the term ‘presency’ proposes a balance between inner reflection and outer action, thinking process and praxis, critical attention to the moment combined with action emerging from an experienced context.

“Reading is not walking on the words; it's grasping the soul of them.”
Paulo Freire

Shifting from dominance to intimacy with the entity of place Image by May East

Maps as Emancipatory Tools

A core insight of regenerative development theory is the idea that we can shift from dominance to intimacy with the entity of place (Regenesis, 2020). This depends on knowing the ‘place’ on the level of relationship and experience.

Mapping women’s audits of everyday life

I propose mapping of women’s ‘presency’ in cities as a potential liberating instrument holding the power of changing urban reality as a tool to explore both the rhizomatic (Deleuze and Guattari, 1972) and the sociological nature of cities from a women’s perspective.

In other words, how cities would look if sidewalks are built, public transport networked, alleyways illuminated, neighbourhood funds distributed informed by the 'presency’ of women. Mapping a mosaic of women urban interventions may provide what Jane Jacobs and Kelvin Campbell called ‘an antidote to the bigness’ of unfulfilled master plans.

How Technology Can Support Women’s Experience in Cities

Referring to the way men experience the city, Baudelaire wrote

‘the crowd is his domain, just as the air is the bird’s, and water that of the fish. His passion and his profession are to merge with the crowd’.

More than a century later, women continue to navigate cities in a profoundly different way from men, often seeking protection from risks of violence and striving to be respected and safe.

For Nishat Awan at an intimate level, there is a disconnect between digital technology infrastructures of the so-called smart cities and women from low-income neighbourhoods. Officials from the UN Women argue no city can be smart and sustainable if half of its population is not safe and lives in fear of violence. The continuous threat of Violence Against Women (VAW) in urban settings highlights the challenge of advancing the joint agenda proposed by #SDG5 Gender Equality and #SDG11 Sustainable Cities & Communities.

5 Apps That Help Navigate You Home Safely

The geography of women’s fear is changing with the rise of technology, smartphones and apps, supporting women to swiftly gather, produce and navigate city data and providing what Jane Jacobs called once the ‘eyes on the street’. Jacobs suggests our streets are safer when there is a crowd of people because if someone is in trouble the eyes on the street are ready to assist and protect from danger.

‘There must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street.’
Jane Jacobs

Platforms such as Commonplace Community Heatmap provides the collective eye and mapping space where local authorities and women & girls can share information on areas where they feel unsafe and what would make them feel safer. A myriad of apps such as Safe & the City, BSafe and Shake2Safety have been used by women from Delhi to Vienna, Kampala to Barcelona, supporting women to navigate back home safely. Here are some of the top-5 apps that women are using to get home safely.

1. Safe & the City

As you download this app, it invites you to pledge to make your city safer by joining the community of users. The app gives real-time notifications from official sources to know what is ahead so that you can plan your next move. User-friendly, you can get a route that has been rated by others as safe, which includes registered safe sites such as policy stations, hospitals and fire stations. Safe & the City provides an anonymous way for you to share what you have experienced or seen. By reporting an incident you support other women.

2. Bsafe

With the Bsafe app you an activate the SOS button with only your voice, even if your phone is in your pocket, jacket or purse. Your key contacts will get a sound alarm with information regarding your GPS location. They will see and hear everything that is happening in real-time via live streaming. You can also invite key contacts to join you on your journey via the app map, and in this way you know you are being accompanied. Users can get a fake phone call to get out of unpleasant situations, and notify friends when they have checked in.

3. One Scream

One Scream can actually detect a scream even if your phone is at the bottom of your bag. 20 seconds after the screen is detected, a text message and an automated call with your location is then sent to a list of people that you can customise in advance.

If you use Android, the phone line will stay open so your chosen contacts can hear, identify, and get help.. You can add up to 3 people to be notified when you need help, and you have 20 seconds to cancel the alarm if you need to. Scream if you encounter any danger.

4. Shake to Safety

The Shake2Safety app is one of the easiest to use. By shaking the phone or pressing the power button 4 times, a call and an SOS text is sent to the registered numbers. It works on a locked screen, even when you have no internet connection. Ideal for when you are walking home alone at night. You can now send a picture of the emergency situation to your contact, and it will share your location too.

5. Safetipin

Safetipin incorporates all the essential features such as GPS tracking, emergency contact numbers, directions to safe locations. It helps you to make safer decisions based on a safety score of an area. While the app is running in the background, it lets you know if you have entered an unsafe location and you can choose to invite friends or family to track you. It collects primary data on lighting, visibility, presence of women and children around, or crowd. Launched in India first, Safetipin is available in Hindi, Bahasa, Spanish and English.

Conclusion

Beyond illustration, tracking and tracing, the visual aspect of mapping may function as a platform for agency, a practice of presence.

The word emancipation is derived from the Latin, e- ‘out’, manus- ‘hand’ and capere- ‘to take’, meaning freeing of an individual from the strong hand or the legal authority to make her or his own way in the world (Etymological Dictionary, 2019).

My investigation suggests that the act of mapping spatially and ‘from within’ the way women experience and interact with the city may unleash women’s emancipatory placemaking skills, moving cities systems up to higher orders of integrated expression.

‘Presency’ of Women in Diverse Communities Image by May East

Interested in knowing more- join me and @ReclaimTheseStreets @IslingtonBC @UNWomenUK in the forthcoming Webinar hosted by Commonplace on Creating safer streets through digital inclusion. 17 May, 11:00 am BST. Register here.