Inclusive Higher Education and the Built Environment. A Research and Teaching Agenda for Gender Mainstreaming in Architecture Studies

Abstract

As one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, gender equality is a necessary foundation for a peaceful and sustainable world. The integration of the frameworks of analysis and action provided by gender perspective into the design, development and assessment of any program related to university education, research and management is essential to the fulfillment of both quality higher education and an effective transfer of knowledge and values to society. Starting from a standpoint of commitment to this progressive outlook, this essay focuses on the specific case of the University of Alicante, Spain, and on its Architecture studies. It seeks to underline the achievements of this institution in the fostering of a critical spirit and the empathy of its students by way of the implementation of gender perspective as a tool for the conception of complex, diverse and integrating projects, aligned to the objective of mutual care between people and the environment. This is crucial for the co-education of future generations of architects, who will play a central role in the definition of new practices and policies related to space and materials, which favor a more sustainable, inclusive and caring scenario for both humans and non-humans.

Exploring the relationship between the urbanization, higher education and female labor force with sustainable development

“…Studies regarding gender issues in higher education institutions have become more prevalent as higher education has expanded globally (Chou and Chang, 2022; Vázquez-Parra et al ., 2021; Park, 2020; Vasile et al ., 2021). For sustainable development, gender equality is an important goal to achieve and is included in SDG 5 (Parra-Martínez et al ., 2021; Valls Martínez et al. , 2022).…”

“…Studies regarding gender issues in higher education institutions have become more prevalent as higher education has expanded globally (Chou and Chang, 2022;V azquez-Parra et al, 2021;Park, 2020;Vasile et al, 2021). For sustainable development, gender equality is an important goal to achieve and is included in SDG 5 (Parra-Mart ınez et al, 2021;Valls Mart ınez et al, 2022). Recent research found the difference in perception of university disciplines among men and women, in particular, social value subcompetency as well as in architecture and design, business, engineering and science (V azquez-Parra et al, 2021).…”

Extending the Architecture of Collective Housing: Towards Common Worlds of Care

“…Yet, from a wider, contemporary perspective, we understand architecture as a series of socio-spatial, material, and symbolic assemblages [14] connecting the private and the public realms through multiple cross-scale relationships, which interweave buildings with cities and cities with the infrastructures [15] and territories giving them support [16]. Architecture, and particularly that of collective housing, involves a complex knot of conflicting agents, interests, policies, and technological forces, which shape our habitat and have a significant impact on the construction of subjectivities [16]. According to Andrés Jaque, architecture is the result of a form of "transmaterial" production, a "processes developed through the coordination of different material media (the built environment, the biology of beings, online interaction)".…”

Infrastructure and Subjective Well-Being from a Gender Perspective

“…Since a city is the habitat where the inhabitants carry out most of their activities (Muxí et al 2011), it has a direct impact on its inhabitants' well-being (Parikh et al 2014;Ravagnan et al 2022). In this sense, there is a growing consensus that urbanization offers enormous potential to improve people's lives, but also that inadequate urban management, often based on inaccurate or biased information and perceptions, can turn opportunity into disaster (Amoroso 2020;De Henau and Himmelweit 2020;Gutiérrez-Mozo et al 2020;Parra-Martínez et al 2021;Levin and Faith-Ell 2019;Sultana 2020;Truelove and Ruszczyk 2022;UNFPA 2007).…”