BETWEEN INTIMATE AND PUBLIC SPACE

Experiences, uses and nocturnal activities under a gender approach

Abstract

Although in recent times there has been an interest in deepening the relationship between nocturnal temporality and the diversified experiences of metropolitan spaces, in Mexico, little research has been carried out on the experience of night in the public spaces that we inhabit on a daily basis. We propose to analyze the role that women play in the nighttime public space, providing elements to deconstruct the opposition between the public and the private sphere. Our field of study is the shopping street of the popular neighborhood of Santo Domingo (CDMX) where we carried out fieldwork sessions with different research methods (semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, and a survey). The first results of our analysis show how the presence of women in this street during night hours impacts environments in which elements from the realms of the public and private spheres and community (Lofland, 1989) interact. This space-time is taken over by women, thus contributing to the perception of the shopping street as an accessible and diversified public space at night.

Keywords: women, public space, night studies, Mexico