#6. SSU – Ecofeminism and the caring city

Ecofeminism emerged in the early 1970s as a challenge to an ecology movement that ignored gender inequality and to a women’s movement that ignored the ecological crisis. By the 1990s the insights of ecofeminist activists were embedded in a new field of feminist urbanism that put social reproduction – the everyday work of caring for people, places and planet – at the centre of its visions. In the 2020s, a time of catastrophic interlocking social, economic and ecological crises, these visions have finally come of age. It is now widely accepted that just and sustainable cities must also be caring cities: cities where care is collectivised and accessible to all and where care for the commons is prioritised over profit and private property. In this seminar, I will trace the history and review the central themes of ecofeminist urban visions, offering examples of how they are manifested in practice and policy. In addition to examples from European cities such as Barcelona and Glasgow, I will discuss why the provision of social and built infrastructure that collectivises care work is a core pillar of a feminist green new deal.