Heritage for Building Sustainable Inclusive Cities

Abstract

This paper proposes to analyse the role that heritage can play in achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls (Goal 5). According to Agenda 2030, its implementation constitutes a transversal tool for the development of the rest of Sustainable Development Goals. The social model that emerges in the Modern State is based on the segregation between the public and private spheres, a dogma already discussed by Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’ or Arendt’s transversal reading of the urban sphere. It prioritises justice and duty over care and responsibility, functions that have been carried out separately by men and women since then. This fact has profited from particular relevance in urban planning, seeking to favour economically productive systems, instead of enabling tasks linked to daily life, reproduction function or care of dependent people. Urban development, exclusively understood from an economic perspective, can also lead to a significant decrease in cultural diversity and, consequently, to gender inequalities. From a heritage perspective, this fact has resulted in undervaluing the women’s role both in heritage discourses and in their construction. Though it has also caused most of the activities are linked to the private sphere, as well as the architectures that support it, they have also been excluded from the legal preservation processes, lacking social recognition. Following the guide ‘Women in the intangible heritage of Andalusia’, the study deals with three fundamental cultural expressions: gastronomy (Pujerra, Malaga), music (Ubrique, Cadiz) and handicrafts (Puebla de Guzman and Hinojos, Huelva).