Radically Imagining the Feminist City: Navigating the Tension between the Present and a Radical Future

This paper examines the challenge of imagining a feminist city 100 years into the future, based on empirical insights from a participatory workshop developed through the FEM.DES network in the Urbanism Next Conference in Amsterdam (2024). A feminist city asks participants to envision beyond immediate solutions to today’s issues and engage with radical imagination. However, participants often focused on mitigating current problems, raising a critical question: How do we imagine transformative futures when our imagination is shaped by oppressive systems?

The paper investigates the tension between the necessity to dream of a feminist future and the difficulty of breaking free from present realities. Central to this is an exploration of methodologies for radical spatial imagination that can transcend oppressive circumstances. The methodology aims to foster ways of thinking that are not confined to solving today’s crises but instead create urban spaces for feminist ideals, liberation, and equity. This study addresses how spatializing the radical imagination can both challenge and empower participants, encouraging them to envision urban environments free from oppression. It highlights the risks of being bound to the present while also considering the power of imagining spaces where feminist values shape the built environment for future generations.

The findings suggest that while participants struggled to imagine beyond the present, developing a methodology for radical spatial imagination offers a pathway to rethinking urban landscapes and systems. By harnessing imagination as a tool for liberation, this process opens up opportunities to design cities that move beyond mitigation and into transformation.