Welcome to the Gender, intersectional Justice, and Sustainability WebQuest! In today's world, addressing the sustainability of Life is crucial for ensuring the well-being of present and future generations. For this task to be not only efficient but likewise fair, applying an intersectional gender perspective is required. Furthermore, applying Gender as cross-cutting methodology proves to grant fairness both in all transformative processes, in their results, and thereby in their impact. Rethinking sustainability under this critical specter can give us new insights and possible solutions to tackle the current situation in our cities.
According to the United Nations, women represent 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing countries. Despite their significant contribution, they have less access to land, credit, and agricultural inputs than men. When sustainability grants consider gender perspectives, they can address these disparities by providing women farmers with the resources they need to enhance productivity and sustainability. Studies have shown that if women had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%, which would significantly reduce hunger and improve food security worldwide.

Your assignment consists of researching and reflecting upon the ways in which an intersectional gender perspective is at work (or not) in a concrete situation or practice, and of presenting your results to a panel of experts. You will analyze and critically assess this situation or practice after having gone through the resources found in the links below. These materials will make it possible for you to get acquainted with the required concepts to reach the established goals. They entail a conceptual introduction to the ways in which knowledge is produced and disseminated without paying attention to gender, age, race, and class differences and sexual difference as regards relations among subjects and among bodies, and, thereby, becoming what might be understood as rigid, immaterial, and disaffected knowledge. These relations also affect the way in which we interact with our environment and surroundings. The impact of producing and disseminating knowledge in these terms will be made clear by analyzing the so-called neutrality of the law and its effects in gender equality policy making also with respect to sustainability and what we consider sustainable practices. It will also clarify what is meant by epistemic injustice and by its counterpart, intersectional justice and how they relate to environmental questions. Once you have gone through the audiovisual materials, feel free to conduct the assessment as indicated in the following steps.

Follow the steps listed below.

1. Team up!
Create a team of 3-4 people trying to assure diversity and gender representation. Assign different roles and responsibilities for each member of the team depending on their motivation and expertise that they can bring in..

2. Get an idea of how gender can be as a methodology
Go through the videos and resources in the order provided to get an initial understanding or expand upon the topic.

3. Begin with a general brainstorming & Perception survey (Living lab activity)
Dedicate a few minutes to jointly grasp the main aspects and advantages of applying gender as a critical tool. Relate to those questions: In what sense would you state that Gender works as a methodology and for what reason(s) would you consider it to be useful? What would you identify as the main critical aspects of embodied knowledge? How would you describe binary logics and why is it ethically and politically relevant to take it into account?
Formulate a simple questionnaire (survey) to go out to test with fellow students or other members of the academic community and evaluate their perception on the question of gender and its usefulness as a transversal tool.

4. Find arguments and defend your position
Proceed to discuss in group after defining different positions regarding knowledge as hegemonic. Defend the position that you have been assigned in front of the rest of the group keeping in mind the aspects that emerged in the brainstorming exercise. Keep these questions in mind: In which sense would you consider knowledge hegemonic and in which terms does Feminism contest it? How would you compare formal equality and effective equality? How would you describe positive action and how would you tell it to be useful to fight discrimination? Try to present a concrete situation to make it explicit.

5. Synthesize and process
What would you consider to be the main strategies to avoid discrimination? According to you, what would be the main theoretical and practical implications of the Feminist critique on the conception of Justice from an intersectional gender perspective?

6. Explore scenarios and applications
Watch the video on sustainable gender equality in practice (last one in resources) that summarizes a lot of the above concepts and reflections. Also look at the best practices implemented and experiences from the city of Barcelona to advance towards a feminist city. Then identify a series of similar issues that you could explore in your neighborhood/city/region or even university campus and share it with the rest of the group. Present and discuss proposals among groups and offer space for debate and learning.

7. Putting theory into Practice
Choose one of the shared real situations or invent one collectively and elaborate a situated reflection in the form of a presentation to an imagined panel of a variety of stakeholders (citizens, representatives from the local Government, scientists, and entrepreneurs) that want to foster changes towards more just and inclusive public spaces in their city. Highlight the challenge but also provide an alternative and inspiring vision for change!

• Situated Knowledges - Critical Social Psychology
• On Standpoint Theory's History and Controversial Reception
• Why Gender Matters for Effective Adaptation to Climate Change (youtube.com)
• No One Will Be Left Behind: No One Will Be Left Behind - Dr Amrita Mukherjee
• Objectivity as a Collaborative Task: Donna Haraway y la otredad significativa
• Donna J. Haraway on Building a Robust Present: Entrevista a Donna J. Haraway, sobre "Seguir con el problema"
• Epistemic violence: Kath Butler discusses epistemic violence
• Sustainable Gender Equality - a film about gender mainstreaming in practice

Well done! By completing this WebQuest, you will acquire a broad understanding of the complexities of gender inequality, the multifaceted nature of intersectional justice, and the interconnectedness of sustainability issues all present in our cities around us. In this way, you can emerge with a well-rounded understanding of critical global issues and be equipped with the skills and responsibility needed to contribute meaningfully to creating a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. This now allows you to imagine ways in which to take action and drive positive change in your community and beyond with a gender perspective. Spread the change!

• How to Build a City for Women, video
• The Cities have gender and yes,its masculine. The architect Zaida Muxí explains, video
• Gender Equal Cities, Document
• The gender equality and environment interesection, Document

Barcelona Plan for Gender Justice

The I Plan for Gender Justice emphasized the feminist perspective as a central axis in public policies, and specifically in local policies. This is the only way to bring about a profound change in the ways of doing politics and in the prioritization of the issues that concern us. The health emergency caused by Covid-19 has led to a serious social and economic crisis that is surely the most important that our generation will experience. The consequences of the pandemic and the measures taken have impacted women and men very differently. Inequality has become more evident in areas such as health, since women have been more exposed to contagion; in the area of unpaid work and caregiving, where women have suffered a clear overload of tasks; and in the area of paid work, where there has been an increase in female unemployment, among others. This situation must be reversed. That is why we are promoting the II Plan for Gender Justice. Today it is more necessary than ever to promote policies that put caregiving at the centre and that move towards a more feminist, more equitable and more diverse Barcelona The II Plan for Gender Justice in Barcelona sets out a series of objectives to enhance the feminist transformation of the institution. Recruitment, budgets or the organisation of the City Council have been accredited as key tools to promote a more feminist city.

Link: II Plan for Gender Justice 2021-2025

Bologna Gender Atlas

This project was born from the collaboration between the Municipality of Bologna and the EIB (European Investment Bank) as part of a broader project which aims to support the Municipality in the design and construction of urban infrastructures and, in general, of buildings and public spaces accessible to women and men and to all the people who live in the city and is the result of a complex and transversal training path within the Administration. Among other outcomes, the project has resulted in an atlas that provides a gender perspective, cross-categorizing the most relevant information found in this process. This collaborative effort involved the statistics, welfare, and urbanism department, among others. The document serves as a decision-making tool, evaluating city actions, and showcasing the links between gender and the city. The municipality aims to update it annually, incorporating the latest versions of public and open data sources.

Link: Mappe di Genere Strumenti per informare e orientare le politiche della città 2023