On freedom, public space and women’s experiences of prostitution. The (in)visible world of the Bois de Vincennes in Paris

Abstract

This paper focuses on Nigerian women’s experiences of prostitution in a public space, the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, as democratic experiences questioning the value of freedom in pluralistic societies. It is based on the very provisional outputs of a collaborative field-research. It relies on an ecological-pragmatist perspective of analysis that suggests to consider public spaces as frontiers of capacitation: in-between spaces where Nigerian women reinvent themselves in the face of international and local, planned and unplanned, events. The aim of the paper is to rethink the political and cultural value of public spaces for just and inclusive territorial transformations. Key-words: prostitution, freedom, public spaces, social justice, cultural pluralism