The production of masculine and heterosexual public spaces. Theoretical background for the study of the social construction of space in the context of fear of crime

Abstract

While the research into public space and fear of crime became a popular topic with some Western European feminist geographers in the 1980s, in Hungary a geographical investigation into the interaction of space, gender and fear of crime has never been carried out. According to Pain (2000), the study of fear of crime is important because it provides an understanding of social power relations and the related inequalities, and it is also crucial because fear strongly affects people’s quality of life. Since it is a non-existing topic in the history of Hungarian geographical research, this paper aims to summarise the findings of the relevant foreign literature to suggest how an enquiry like this can contribute to the further advancement of geographical knowledge production. After the discussion of the definition and significance of public space (Staeheli and Mitchell 2007), the reader is presented with an understanding of space which is socially produced and comes about as a result of the interaction of gender, sexuality and fear of crime. It is Valentine’s (1996) spatial theory, which is based on the theory of gender performativity originally developed by Butler, that helps explain the social production of masculine and heterosexual spaces. The description of the process of the fear of crime-related production of space is then based on the works of, mainly, Valentine (1992), Koskela (1997, 2000) and Brownlow (2005). This paper suggests that feminist geographical research projects could extend our understanding of space, i.e. contribute to the development of spatial theory, and also help us gain insight into the ways people relate to space. Furthermore, they help us understand the reasons behind social inequalities.