Work

Peripheral feminisms: women’s activism and struggle in Dar es Salaam’s fast changing self-built territories

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper draws from investigation of the lived experiences of women’s activism and struggle in the (re)production of their peripheral territories: the predominantly low-income, incrementally self-built, marginalized neighbourhoods where they live and work, building strategies of living. Drawing from intersectionality, feminist geography and culture studies, and analysis of urbanization in the periphery, it frames women’s experiences as fluid and permeated by insecurities while also marked by resistance and hopeful imaginations. The study is based on the case of Dar es Salaam, a fast-growing East African city where neighbourhoods are primarily autoconstructed, with women playing a protagonist role. The empirical focus is a women-led housing federation and their action(s) in Keko Machungwa, near the city centre. In-depth qualitative data based on four years of research work informs the analysis. The paper reveals some of the daily practices and the strategies that female leaders in Keko Machungwa have adopted to transform living conditions in their territory, socially and materially. The study also points to ways in which these experiences cross women’s lives and bodies, describing them as a form of feminist urban struggle in peripheral areas, or a peripheral feminism.

Source: Gender Place & Culture

DOI: 10.1080/0966369x.2025.2573353

Author: Priscila Izar

Institution: University of the Witwatersrand

Language: English

Topic: Urban and Rural Development Challenges

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Reduced inequalities, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Urban Studies Foundation