Trygghetsaspekter i den fysiska planeringen : En kvalitativ studie om trygghetsarbete i Umeå kommun

To feel safe in a city is important for all people as it increases the quality of our lives. Women often feel more unsafe in public spaces compared to men. This study explores how safety aspects are included in the spatial planning of Umeå municipality, both in terms of including safety aspects as lights, but also including people’s opinions about safe places. This has been of interest because men and women have different experiences of feeling safe where women to a greater extent feel unsafe in public areas due to a fear of being attacked and raped. Therefore, it is of interest to study how the municipality works to increase safety for women in public areas. To gain knowledge about safety aspects in spatial planning the study has been based on examining of documents from four different projects in Umeå. One interview was also held with and employee from Umeå municipality for information about safety and equality in spatial planning. The study found that the municipality of Umeå in a large scale includes safety aspects in the spatial planning. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to increase peoples experience of safety in public spaces. The result also showed that it is not only the physical design within a city that can be changed to make a safe city, but also structures and norms that exist in society that must be dealt with and improved in order for women’s experience of safety to be improved