This thesis is a case study analysis of the feminist urban development project #UrbanGirlsMovement discussing how gender-transformative urban planning techniques impact local girls in the Million Dwellings Program area Fittja south of Stockholm. The thesis draws on a theoretical framework of feminist geography, intersectionality, and territorial stigmatization to analyze narratives from eleven girls participating in #UrbanGirlsMovement. The girls’ narratives reveal that it has been an empowering experience to be part of an urban development process as it has enabled them to recognize their own abilities. By re-evaluating the role of the planner to take on a more facilitating role, the girls shouldered the role of experts. It legitimized the girls’ ideas and designs, enabling them both to recognize and to use their own agency. Additionally, the process of redesigning a familiar place enabled the girls to regenerate the meaning of the urban public space around Fittja to mirror their own subjective spatial identities. The thesis shows that intersectional planning tools that transform, rather than inform, power and spatial oppression are crucial when renewing the Million Dwellings Program of Swedish suburbs. #UrbanGirlsMovement shows that a planning process is more than physical designs, it is as much a tool for enhanced democracy, equality, and justice in cities.

Livability, sustainability, and accessibility in urban public space are growing concerns in urban research and policy agendas. The professional field, however, lacks perspectives for public space qualities. Academic research about women and girls’ involvement in the re-design of public spaces is scarce. The Swedish suburb of Fittja in Botkyrka municipality is characterized by modernism and functionalism and at the beginning of a large refurbishment process. In 2018, think tank Global Utmaning initiated #UrbanGirlsMovement Botkyrka with the purpose of improving the public spaces of Fittja together with multiple stakeholders, particularly girls and young women from Fittja. In this case study, multiple methods and concepts from feminist urban geography and public space research are applied to examine how livability is illustrated and understood by girls and in which ways these learnings can inform urban public space policies. The results highlight ways to discharge patriarchal structures in public space using a compact and multifunctional urban form, accessible to all citizens through a variety of unprogrammed activity options, vibrant hangspace and green beautification. A feminist approach to urban livability shows the importance of understanding the diversity of perspectives to livability in public space, and that these perspectives matter for how we understand planning principles.