Reconceptualising public spaces of (IN)equality: sensing and creating layers of visibility

Abstract

Space and social identities mutual relation of constitution and reproduction lead us to the understanding that space reflects power relations and hegemonic discourses, and that inequality can perpetuate itself through the ways space is organized, experienced, represented and created. Public spaces are constructed around particular notions of appropriate sexual comportment, reflecting and reproducing heteronormativity, as they exclude non-normative sexualities, such as lesbian sexualities. In a context of a heteronormative socio-spatial landscape women can decide not to disclose their non-normative sexual orientation, leading to a pervasive invisibility of lesbian sexualities in public spaces. Concurrently the pervasive invisibility of lesbian sexualities in public spaces reinforces power inequalities, feeding back the heteronormative socio-spatial landscape. Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation is still a widespread reality in Portugal in spite of the significant legal advances towards equality in recent years. Discriminated minority groups, such as lesbians, experience power inequalities in their everyday lives, and their spatial invisibility in public spaces contributes to their disempowerment. Communication technologies recast the organization and production of the spatial and temporal scenes of social life and they open new possibilities of public action. The production of alternative representations of space, based on individuals’ georeferenced experiences, thoughts and emotions are increasingly supported by the potentialities of Internet based technologies, such as the ever more easy-to-use online software. The potential of these technologies to promote the agency, to change power relations and to disrupt the hegemonic discourse increase as more people become the authors of a complementary flow of knowledge, information, memories and stories. This research explores the potential of geospatial online practices, based upon the experiences, emotions and feelings of lesbian and bisexual women to disclose the socially encoded meanings of different bodies in specific spatial, temporal and cultural contexts, highlighting how spaces and sexual identities are mutually constitutive. This research project aims to explore the potential of collaborative web mapping to promote the agency and empowerment of lesbian and bisexual women. It is structured in three phases: ‘Mapping the landscape’ aims to map spaces of lesbian and gay visibility in public spaces to contextualise the hetero pervasive reality in Portugal; the second phase ‘Sensing the landscape’ focuses on the intersections of gender and sexual orientation, aiming to identify significant dimensions of space and places that relate to lesbian and bisexual women sexual identities; and the third and final phase of the research ‘Creating landscapes’ explores how creating and sharing digital layers of lesbian visibility on collaborative web maps can disrupt a hetero pervasive reality and impact social identity and belonging, building capacities for action of lesbian and bisexual women, and facilitating same-sex public displays of affection. Ultimately, this research aims to explore the empowering potentialities of geospatial online practices to provide alternative possibilities for citizenship, and foster social change.

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