Policies of care for a feminist urban planning culture. Two Strategic Plans in Barcelona and Montevideo

Abstract

The feminist urban theory challenges the traditional way of thinking and organize the city, around the idea of the dichotomy of Public/Private, where the public realm comprehends issues related to productive work, economy and finance, public spaces, political activities, and social relations; and the private one holds issues related to care/reproductive work, domestic spaces, family relationships.  As Urban planning is related to the public realm and is informed by the capitalist patriarchal society, it gives priority to the to the economic and financial aspects and productive work. Claiming that “personal is political” feminisms aim to overcome the segregation of reproduction of life and care activities. Feminist scholars gave to the concept of “care” a broader meaning, moving it from a family task to a public issue. The paper aims to describe how it is possible to practically deal with the transformation of care into a public issue, by taking two plans, in Barcelona and Montevideo, as examples.