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Gender Curricula Transport Planning

Spatial Planning, Urban Planning, Environmental Planning

Course: Transport Planning
Group of courses: Engineering

Course objectives:

Students should receive an overview of the theoretical and empirical approaches of women's and gender studies to the area of urban and traffic planning. This should include gender-based reflection on the theories, concepts and methods of transportation research and their application in transport planning and policy. It should also include developing practical design ideas for transport planning from a gender perspective. Students should learn that transport planning is a form of planning of public (urban) space.

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Teaching content/subject-specific gender studies content:

A central aspect of women's and gender studies in the area of transport planning is the interrelationship between mobility and spatial structure. In feminist transport studies, transportation is viewed as the social organisation of spatial/temporal structures. A core concept here is the category of reproduction. Its significance for spatial development and personal mobility represents the starting point for gender analyses and feminist concepts in transport planning.


Subject-specific content:
  • Empirical foundations of mobility patterns and mobility needs, differentiated by gender
  • spatial and settlement structures in relation to transport planning (e.g. urban sprawl vs. city of short distances) and the related life and household forms
  • actors of the transport policy
  • masculinism in transport policy, transport planning, media presentations etc.
  • Gender and Mobility in a global context

 

Key insights relate to the following areas:
  • Mobility: What activities require mobility? How should normal day-to-day mobility be understood? What is the gender-specific data on mobility? How has this data been collected?
  • Time and space: What is the impact of acceleration on spatial development as regards gender? How do spatial structures and means of transport shape the gender-specific use of time and availability over time?
  • Settlement structures: How are settlement structures and the development of transport interrelated? How are they encoded in terms of gender? How do different forms of settlement shape opportunity for mobility, taking into consideration the intersectionality of race, class and gender?
  • Sustainability: What are the characteristics of sustainable transport planning? How are environmental protection and the emancipation of women interrelated? How can mobility and emancipation be connected via the concept of sustainability?
  • Infrastructure policy: How is the infrastructure for transport technology planned and financed? What are the gender issues regarding infrastructure policy? What is the significance of the privatization of infrastructures as regards gender?

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Integration of gender studies content into the curriculum:

Gender should be viewed as a cross-disciplinary task, otherwise it is not possible for students to gain a proper understanding of mobility in transport. The close connection between urban development and transport planning is well documented from the point of view of gender.

Nevertheless, a special gender module should be included in engineering degrees. Where no such module exists, the technical aspects of transport planning often dominate over analytical approaches to understanding mobility, how it arises and what the demand for it is.
 

Such a gender module could include the following aspects:
  • Gender-specific mobility data
  • Reflection on core concepts of transport research and planning
  • Infrastructure policy and its impact on spatial structures from the point of view of gender
  • Sustainable and emancipatory concepts in transport planning
  • The theory and analysis of public (urban) space
  • Transport policy: actors, Integration of planning decisions in the political and economic context of urban and regional development

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Degree Stage:

We recommend taking a joint approach to the different subject areas, interlinking gender content across the different disciplines early on.

Thus it would be possible to combine gender teaching for urban planning and transport planning at BA level, while investigating specific transport issues in greater detail within the MA.