„Patriarchy written in stone“. A research overview on gender and space in the 21st centuryt

Gender and space have become prevalent as central categories in the analysis of social phenomena. The aim of this paper is to survey the feminist discussions on gender and space since the turn of the century and to interrogate how gender + space are conceptualized and studied in their interrelation. As the “analysis of the interrelation of both categories […] often [remains] still rather fragmentary” (Ruhne 2019: 203), this paper traces a search beyond disciplinary boundaries. It focuses on debates within the anglophone context and texts from queer geography, postcolonial approaches, Feminist Urban Planning, and Feminist Rural Studies. With regard to the conceptual contribution to gender + space the state of research of these respective fields is presented and critically examined. The author elaborates on the persistent conceptual gap by focusing on identities, the subsuming of space into the concept of intersectionality, and the related activist orientation. It concludes by synthesizing the lines of debate and outlining a possible approach for a systematic analysis of gender + space in their interrelation.