Extended Abstract
Background and Objectives: In contemporary urban studies, everyday life serves as an indispensable foundation for critical reflection and plays a central role in the analysis of urban public space. From this perspective, public life is understood as the lived experiences of individuals and the tangible expression of their everyday practices, shaped in response to the operation of dominant social structures within a particular spatio-temporal and experiential context. This study investigates urban public space at the micro scale, aiming to identify the factors that influence women’s spatial practices. It examines how women actively engage with, negotiate, and shape urban space according to their intentions and motivations. These practices are interpreted through Certeau’s concept of the culture of consumption and Lefebvre’s theory of the social production of space.
Methods: Drawing on the critical paradigm in urban studies and grounded in the theoretical perspectives of key scholars, particularly Lefebvre, this study adopts an inductive and interpretive approach to examine everyday urban practices within micro-scale public spaces. The research employs a qualitative methodology, focusing on women’s everyday experiences as a significant and often underrepresented group of urban space users. The study investigates women’s lived experiences in a micro-scale public space-the Khajoo Bridge in Isfahan, Iran- using grounded theory to explore the complex interrelationship between time, space, and everyday life.
This research is cross-sectional in design. Grounded theory is employed to develop a theoretical framework that identifies and conceptualizes the relational factors shaping women’s spatial practices within the Khajoo Bridge environment. Data were collected from three complementary sources: (1) observational data, obtained through mobile (walk-along) observation, behavioral mapping, and participant observation conducted at different times and locations; (2) visual data, including photographs taken during fieldwork and relevant images obtained from news media and social media platforms; and (3) subjective data, collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews.
Behavioral observations were conducted systematically over two one-week periods during the spring and winter of 2019, supplemented by additional non-systematic observations carried out between 2017 and 2019. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and consisted of 11 women who had used the Khajoo Bridge regularly for at least two years. Data analysis followed the grounded theory procedure of open, axial, and selective coding, leading to the development of a theoretical-contextual model that explains the relationships among the identified categories.
The findings are based on the systematic analysis of field observations and interview data. Four complementary observational techniques were employed to analyze women’s practices: time–behavior analysis, place–behavior analysis, actor–behavior analysis (examining practices according to group membership), and tool–behavior analysis (examining the influence of technological devices and tools on behavior).
Findings: The study developed a grounded theoretical model of women’s spatial practices in urban public space. Analysis of the interview data generated approximately 700 propositions, which were coded into 56 concepts, 22 categories, and 12 core categories. The findings were integrated into a theoretical-contextual model comprising causal conditions, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, the central phenomenon, and consequences. The central phenomenon consists of the factors shaping women’s spatial practices at the Khajoo Bridge. These are grouped into four dimensions: antecedent conditions (worldview and political perspectives), contextual conditions (biogeographical and spatio-physical characteristics), causal conditions (gender, cultural, global, and institutional influences), and intervening conditions (social relations, tourism, and crises). Practice, as the core category, represents women’s strategies for appropriating public space through conforming and dissenting practices. Women’s practices generate both positive and negative outcomes. Positive effects include enhanced sociability for women and improved spatial management for formal institutions. Negative outcomes include social alienation, spatial camouflage, and the weakening of institutional control over public space. Field observations and rhythmanalysis identified two forms of women’s practices. Planned practices include livelihood and leisure activities that follow relatively stable patterns but vary according to male presence, weather conditions, and public surveillance. Spontaneous practices, such as participation in music performances, group games, gambling, and social media content creation, are more flexible and diverse, reflecting women’s ongoing negotiation of opportunities and constraints in public space.
Conclusion: This study develops a grounded model of women’s spatial practices at the Khajoo Bridge, demonstrating that their everyday activities are shaped by dominant ideological and institutional structures. Spatial restrictions encourage women to adopt creative tactics, enabling them to appropriate public space despite limited opportunities. Their practices are influenced by gendered norms, biocultural conditions, global trends, institutional frameworks, local customs, and artistic culture, while social relations, tourism, and situational contexts act as intervening factors. Women’s responses range from conformity to resistance, expressed through negotiation, compromise, conflict, and subversion. Four modes of spatial practice were identified: empathetic, creative, autonomous, and legitimacy-seeking. These are enacted through temporal, spatial, agential, and instrumental tactics. The consequences are twofold: for women, practices enhance sociability and spatial experience but also lead to concealment and temporary occupation; for formal institutions, they improve social control while simultaneously weakening official legitimacy and encouraging the informal appropriation of public space.