Regendering urban space? Transfeminist streetscapes in Milan, Italy.

Abstract

Informed by critical feminist theory, this essay examines performative practices designed to re-territorialize the urban fabric of Milan by claiming the right to the city from a gender perspective. A further aim of the research presented here was to fill a gap in critical toponymy, because – to date – little has been written about gender and street names. Odonomastic guerrilla warfare, albeit a recent development, is not confined to the city of Milan, but rather, in light of ongoing initiatives  by women's associations and transfeminist collectives in other Italian and European cities, is also driving change in other settings, via counter-narratives that go beyond the binary male/female dimension to rethink both our history and our contemporary life spaces.