Women as political subjects: democratic citizen participation in “Alto Fucha” Ecoterritory, Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract

The text discusses how the urban policy of intervention oriented to informal urbanization in Bogotá constructs the category of women as political subjects based on lack, naturalizing victimization. Meanwhile, women in their daily lives seek to alter this institutional idea with counter-hegemonic practices that elaborate a new version of their position as political subjects. The tension between the category of women as political subjects of the urban norm and women’s living practices was approached in a double-entry matrix, which compared the dimensions of citizenship (Bosniak, 2006, quoted in Hinze, 2020), against the categorical construction of the norm and women’s living practices in the Alto Fucha Ecoterritory. This was done through a qualitative approach that incorporated the analysis of texts on urban regulations in the software Atlas.Ti 9.1.7; and to observe the daily practices of women,
life stories, commented tours and ethnography of neighborhood activities were collected. The findings point to alternative ways of doing citizenship from everyday practices and under articulations deeply connected with nature,
converging in new ways of understanding, and exercising leadership. The conclusions point out that, on the one hand, women challenge the individual conception of citizenship towards an interdependent action that suggests transcending from an individual political subject to a collective one. And, on the other hand, in this transition
from the individual to the collective, they leave aside the idea of lack and victimization that the norm grants them.