Online activism and street harassment: Critical cartographies, counter-mapping and spatial justice

Authors

  • Bianca Kate Fileborn University of Melbourne

Keywords:

Street harassment, digital criminology, activism, critical cartography, crime mapping, Acoso callejero, criminología digital, activismo, cartografía crítica, cartografía de la delincuencia

Abstract

Social media and activist sites have provided an avenue to contest the dominant framing of street harassment as ‘trivial’ and have sought to make street harassment and its harms visible. To date, digital activism has been analysed and conceptualised in relation to its potential as a counter-public forum that enables collective action and resistance, political mobilisation, ‘speaking out’ and consciousness raising, and as a site of informal or innovative justice. I aim to build on this literature by examining the potential for the activist sites Hollaback!, @catcallsofnyc and @dearcatcallers to function as a form of ‘counter-mapping’, contributing towards broader social justice efforts to disrupt and transform dominant productions of space/place. I examine the tensions created by these digital practices, particularly with regards to whether they disrupt the production of space/place or, rather, reinforce urban space as a gendered ‘threatscape’.

Algunas redes sociales y sitios web de activistas han constituido una vía de contestación al marco dominante que considera el acoso callejero como algo “trivial”; y han procurado visibilizar el acoso callejero y sus perjuicios. Hasta la fecha, se ha analizado y conceptualizado el activismo digital en relación con su potencial como contraforo público que posibilita la acción y resistencia colectivas, la movilización política, “alzar la voz” y concienciar, y como lugar de justicia informal o innovadora. Me propongo contribuir a esta literatura realizando un análisis del potencial de los sitios web activistas Hollaback!, @catcallsofnyc y @dearcatcallers para funcionar como “contraperfilado geográfico”, contribuyendo a ampliar la justicia social y perturbar y transformar producciones dominantes de espacio/lugar. Examino las tensiones creadas por dichas prácticas digitales, sobre todo en torno a la cuestión de si perturban la producción de espacio/lugar o si, más bien, refuerzan el espacio urbano como escenario de amenaza de género.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1144

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Author Biography

Bianca Kate Fileborn, University of Melbourne

Lecturer in Criminology

School of Social & Political Sciences

University of Melbourne

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Published

01-10-2021

How to Cite

Fileborn, B. (2021) “Online activism and street harassment: Critical cartographies, counter-mapping and spatial justice”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 11(5), pp. 1198–1221. Available at: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1182 (Accessed: 28 March 2024).