Time: Thursday, 11/Sept/2025: 4:00pm - 5:30pm Session Chair: Prof. Henriette Bertram Session Chair: Sarah Mente |
Feminist critique of capitalist patriarchy has long included a critique of space and planning practices that prioritise the needs of paid employment over those of caregiving even though one cannot exist without the other. It was argued that the built environment, along with gendered norms and stereotypes, discouraged carers – mostly women – from taking up employment. Nowadays, compatibility of paid and unpaid care tasks (or: the lack thereof) has become an increasingly important issue for people of all genders. This ‘double burden’ often results in mental overload or even illness for the individual carer, and an increased outsourcing of care tasks into – often precarious – paid labour on a societal level. Municipalities all over Europe have initiated ‘gender-sensitive’ or ‘family-friendly’ planning projects, which have not only made the life of caregivers easier, but also advanced feminist debate. Interestingly enough, however, few projects (practice or research) seem to discuss the interdependency of productive and reproductive tasks or relate planning to the systemic problems produced by the demands and contradictions of capitalism. In our session, we aim to link the spatial and the structural and ask how urban, suburban and rural living and working environments would look and feel like if they were to enable healthy caring as well as work relationships. We welcome contributions that engage theoretically as well as empirically with the work-care-nexus. Which differences are there between gender-sensitive, family-friendly and care/compatibility-oriented planning? How do different actors interpret and engage with these topics? (How) can care and employment take place in a none-overstraining manner? Which actors – public, private and civic – would have to work together in order to achieve this? We want to hear about initiatives that create care/compatibility-oriented conditions as well as about the coping strategies of individual carer-employees. Potential presentations can focus on, but are not limited to, housing (environments), the public and green spaces, all kinds of infrastructure and mobility, and not least the creation, flexibilisation and spatial organisation of employment that really is compatible with care. We especially invite proposals that advance intersectional perspectives. We look forward to discussing more inclusive, equitable and caring urban futures together!
Affective Vélomobilities of Care in Postsocialist Settings
Tallinn University, Estonia
This paper focuses on the Baltic countries and the broader Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, drawing on a literature review conducted for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship project Affective Vélomobilities of Care (VELOCARE). Beginning in February 2025, VELOCARE will explore the practice of co-cycling among women and their children in Tallinn. The project aims to:
- Identify the factors that motivate or discourage women from cycling when performing care-related mobility tasks.
- Examine historical factors—such as the legacy of "post-socialist" urban planning—that contribute to low cycling rates among women.
- Investigate how co-cycling shapes affective relationships between mothers, their children, and the urban environment.
This presentation will concentrate on the first two objectives by reviewing previous research on gendered (vélo)mobilities of care in CEE countries and discussing preliminary findings from the VELOCARE project. It will hypothesize how planning and policy challenges have impeded women’s ability to cycle between workplaces, care institutions, and home. By mapping historical barriers to women’s care mobilities, this study seeks to propose solutions that promote a more sustainable work-care nexus—benefiting both the environment and individual caregiver-employees
Towards a gender-sensitive planning model for rural areas: care as a transversal catalyst for equal rural development
University of Bologna, Italy
This study examines the potential of applying gender-sensitive planning models in rural areas, where socio-spatial challenges intertwin with caregiving responsibilities. While feminist critiques of spatial planning have largely focused on urban contexts, rural areas present distinct issues that demand attention, making them a crucial focal point for advancing research on this topic.
Rural areas face challenges such as depopulation, demographic decline, limited access to basic services and infrastructure, and an ageing population, all of which amplify the role and impact of care on local communities and economies. While these challenges affect the entire population, they disproportionately impact women, especially those with caregiving responsibilities.
Women in rural areas face the double burden of disproportionate caregiving responsibilities, including the care of children, older people, those with disabilities, and dependent individuals, and work while contending with limited access to essential services, transportation, and infrastructure. These barriers heighten their physical, mental, and emotional strain, restricting their economic opportunities and contributing to their underrepresentation in the workforce. The lack of services and support systems drives many young women to migrate to urban areas in search of better opportunities, further fueling rural depopulation, ageing, and economic decline in rural areas.
To ground this research in concrete data and examples, the study is set within the framework of the Horizon Europe RURACTIVE project, which works with 12 rural study areas, called Dynamos, to co-develop innovative and inclusive solutions for rural development. This research will utilize the RURACTIVE Solutions Catalogue, a repository of community-led and innovative initiatives, to analyze projects focused on collective care, employability, local services for health and wellbeing, and work-life balance in rural contexts. By examining these solutions, the study aims to analyze the enabling factors that make these initiatives effective in addressing caregiving challenges while balancing paid work, promoting gender equality and social justice. The final goal is to investigate how solutions focusing on care as a regenerative principle, emphasizing interdependence and collective responsibility, can act as a catalyst for gender equality, spatial justice, and promote a just rural development process.
Closing the Gap: Policy Needs and Women's Labour Market Challenges in Industrial Peripheries of CEE
University of Graz, Austria
Industrial production in small and medium-sized towns in peripheral locations remains an important and distinctive feature of Central and Eastern Europe (OECD, 2023). Its economic base demands specific occupational profiles, resulting in narrow labour markets (Harfst et al., 2024), where women often find themselves in precarious employment situations. As part of the “group at risk of exclusion”, they are more likely to work part-time, occupy lower-paid positions (Iszkowska et al., 2021), and bear the burden of unpaid care work (Christensen et al., 2016). Additionally, patriarchal structures, which are particularly evident in industrial communities and the periphery, foster and reproduce these inequalities. Policies often fail to effectively address these issues due to the absence of dedicated employment strategies, insufficient vertical policy integration, and the lack of a comprehensive place-based approach.
This contribution aims to raise awareness about the specific challenges women face in industrial peripheral settings in CEE countries. It seeks to enhance understanding of a group that is typically underrepresented in academic debates on economic transformations, despite often being among the most affected. Additionally, a policy review will outline the current state of the policy landscape, its gaps, and shortcomings, while proposing potential solutions. These insights are based on a survey conducted among international project partners and expert interviews, drawing on preliminary results from the INTERREG Danube WIN project (Improving the Position of Women in the Labour Markets of Peripheral Industrial Regions), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
OECD (2023). The Future of Rural Manufacturing. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/499ed299-en
Christiansen, L. E., Lin, H., Pereira, J., Topalova, P., Turk Ariss, R., & Koeva, P. (2016). Unlocking female employment potential in Europe: Drivers and benefits. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved from https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/dp/2016/eur1601.pdf
Iszkowska, J., Kawecka, K., Lázár, J., Matécsa, M., Nawrocki, P., Novak, J., Róna, D., & Štverková, I. (2021). Win-win: How empowering women can benefit Central and Eastern Europe. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/europe/closing%20the%20gender%20gap%20in%20central%20and%20eastern%20europe/20210917_win%20win_cee%20wome n%20report_final.pdf
Harfst, J., Kozina, J., Sandriester, J., Tiran, J., Bole, D., & Pizzera, J. (2024). Problematization and policy responses to youth (out)migration in small and medium-sized industrial towns. European Planning Studies, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2024.2438964