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Sentiment analysis as tool for gender mainstreaming in slum rehabilitation housing management in Mumbai, India

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Article

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Authors

Sunikka-Blank, Minna  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-3046
Haque, AN 

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Gender mainstreaming in slum rehabilitation is a critical determinant for the success or failure of it. Slum rehabilitation in Mumbai is a hallmark example of a participatory process which is supposed to improve the quality of life and well-being among the rehabilitated occupants, on paper. Yet our findings show that the key stakeholders’ (i.e. policymaker, architect, management co-operatives and female occupants) sentiments are worlds apart. This gap evokes a need for a more systematic framework for a participatory approach. Verbal communication has the power to implicitly decipher the common emotion or sentiment regarding infrastructure or its related policy. This study uses a quasi-qualitative approach to understand the underlying concerns of gender mainstreaming in slum rehabilitation housing (SRH) management in Mumbai, India. Verbal narratives from semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions are used to explore the concerns of the stakeholders. Sentiment analysis using the machine learning technique of Natural Language Processing (NLP) is used to decode the emotions across the stakeholders. The results indicate that gender inequality in SRH is propagated through lack of communication and the different vocabulary used by the female occupants and the apex policymakers. There are also remarkable differences between male- and female-led co-operatives who are in charge of SRH management. Female-led co-operatives were observed to go beyond basic maintenance duties, to reduce debt and monthly fees and to take up incremental improvements such as decorative elements or installation of solar panels. This participation required a full female body co-operative rather than partial female representation in order to be effective. This study suggests that gender mainstreaming is important not only in SRH design but also in maintenance and that exploring the sentiments of the key stakeholders, as proposed in our analysis, could mitigate undesirable effects of SRH and enable the participatory process.

Description

Keywords

Participatory approach, Gender mainstreaming, Slum rehabilitation, Stakeholders perception, Semantic maps, Sentiment analysis

Journal Title

Habitat International

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0197-3975
1873-5428

Volume Title

92

Publisher

Elsevier

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
British Academy Knowledge Frontiers programme (KF1/100033), the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the Government of India (GoI) project titled CoE-FAST (RD/0114-MHRD0A0-025) and IRCC-Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Fund (RD/0516-IRCCSH0-032).