"A Bastion of Sanity in a Crazy World": A Local Feminist Movement and the Reconstitution of Scale, Space, and Place in an Eastern German City

This article examines the development of the local women’smovement in one city in eastern Germany since German unificationin 1990. Utilizing a framework that attends to issues of scale,space, and place reveals how this women’s movement hasboth participated in and benefited from the downward scalingof women’s mobilizations in the immediate postunificationperiod. Feminist activists and organizations contributed tothe constitution of the city as a place defined by its emphasison egalitarian values and high degrees of state interventionin gender inequality and to the emergence of the city as partof a transnational space tied as much to Sweden as to Germany.Through this reimagination of the scale, space, and place ofthe city, the women’s movement was able to position itselfas a legitimate and important part of the life of the city andto successfully collaborate with local state offices and institutionsto secure funding for women’s organizations and pass legislationto protect women from discrimination and abuse.