Creating the anti-sexist city: The potential of the local state in combatting sexual harassment

Abstract

In this article we advance theory by developing a conceptualisation of the local state as an active player in the promotion of anti-sexist urbanism. While recent theory has explored ways in which the local state has promoted socially progressive goals under neoliberalism, this work has focused almost entirely on economic-rather than social-goals. We extend this work by developing a concept of the local state in the promotion of social and gender-justice agendas. We do this by bringing scholarships on the local state; feminist urbanism and arts-led feminist activism to bear on a case study of Bristol, UK. Through an analysis of the ways Bristol has activated urban space to challenge sexual harassment through collaborations with artists and third-sector partners, we extend understanding of how the local state can re-script urban space as spaces of resistance, through which more emancipatory forms of urban life might be possible. We argue that the local state has an important role to play in combatting sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence and drawing forth the anti-sexist city. We advance theory in and beyond Geography about what local states can be and do, and submit that the forms of urban innovation seen in Bristol constitute a model of how the local state can promote anti-sexist place-making.