Safety Spheres: Danger Mapping and Spatial Justice

This article examines the exclusion of women from public space through the creation of symbolic borders and gendered space in the safety discourse of a large public university. The analysis examines the marking of safe and unsafe space for women through maps, safety advice and geographical enhancements on the university campus which unify and divide by gender as they mark ‘appropriate’ space for women. One of the more important consequences of this segregation is uneven access to resources. This analysis points to our need to reconsider the current focus on ‘stranger danger’ that dominates safety advice with attention to equal rights as well as potential harms to women.