How to Socialize a Shopping Centre in a Feminist Way?

We want to socialize care work. This means understanding the local social space as a space for action: Our goal is the socio-ecological transformation towards a caring city! We see care centers in our neighborhoods as an important starting point for this. Care centers are places of local support for caregivers who perform paid and unpaid care and cycle work. In order to secure such projects in the long term, they must be withdrawn from profit-oriented uses.

While the care crisis is intensifying and non profit projects are struggling to survive, more and more shopping centers from Düsseldorf to Munich to Cottbus, but also in Berlin from Wedding to Steglitz, from Hermannplatz to Treptow, are simply vacant. In Berlin-Treptow, the almost completely empty ParkCenter shopping mall is to be partially demolished and replaced with new buildings. We say: That would not only be an ecological mistake, but also a social one. Instead of even more offices, we want to use the available space for local and community-oriented services.

Care centers should be adapted to the local needs of the neighborhood and the development of the centers should take place in a participatory process with the local people. For a queer-feminist (urban) planning from below.

In the workshop, we will share our reflections and initial experiences/approaches from our work and report on historical and international examples of de-privatization and the radical reorganization of care work. Against this background, we want to work with you to develop strategies and ways to socialize care work and shopping centers.