ABSTRACT
A cross-disciplinary study of gender and space informs a methodological approach beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries. Recent research inspired by feminist scholars across various disciplines has influenced the cross-disciplinary research to shift the attention from the notion of space as it has been defined by urban planners and architects to the notions of agency, representation, power dynamics and spatial metaphors as it is defined, used and transformed by actors through everyday activities and practices (Rendell et al. 2000; Rieker and Ali 2008; Spain 1992). Such cross-disciplinary approach in this volume is partially based on the active role of urban planning and architecture in the construction of sexual identity, and on how the architects, artists and theorists investigate the way sexuality is constituted through the organization of materials, objects and human subjects in the actual space. Positioned within such a discourse, Sanders (1996) informs the question of sexuality and space under an irrevocable account on the history, context, theory and practice. This also is in line with what Spivak (2003: 26) calls “looking for the definition in the eye of the other,” calling for a shift from urban planners as the authority of knowledge to those who actually use the space.
