Gated Communities

Draft, please do not quote without permission This paper reviews the arguments and some of the evidence on the emergence of gated communities and contends that the concept of the partitioned city has a useful application both in the private sector and public sector housing. The focus of the paper will be the UK context, and developments that have been largely ignored to date. The paper utilises the concept of ‘club economics ’ to consider the critical issues behind the development of private neighbourhoods within public housing contexts. It contends that whilst gating may exemplify a form of privatism, it may also provide a contribution to social cohesion through the establishment of new forms of territorial management and relationships. It considers how democratic accountability can be established within such environments and how management structures can either facilitate or prevent resident empowerment. By formulating a typology of private and public dwellings and neighbourhoods ...

In Fortress America, Edward Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder pose the question: ‘Are gated communities a metaphor of the exclusionary fortress, creating walls between citizens, or are they refuges from the forces that threaten family, economic security, and quality of life?’.  Security zones, a specific type of gated community predicated on residents’ fear of the monstrous potentiality of disordered space outside its borders, have been discussed in terms of heterotopia due to their function as sites which both mirror and attempt to perfect the space that surrounds them. This paper asserts that the utopian intention of such communities is often precluded in practice, leading instead to a Foucauldian heterotopia based on spatial regimentation, dread of difference and the craving for panoptic control. Through a spatial reading of Rodrigo Plá’s 2007 film La Zona (The Zone), set in a middle-class walled village in the heart of a non-descript Mexican city, the gated community comes to be constituted as an ‘other space’, whose guards and residents are contemporary reincarnations of Foucault’s watchmen of the Panopticon. The film’s motif of security, demonstrated via a myriad of audio-visual surveillance apparatuses, is shown in this way to become an aesthetic ideal in a self-perpetuating cycle as, faced with the threat of the zone’s borders being breached, the residents struggle to exercise complete control over their own space. Paradoxically, it is this very aesthetic of surveillance, employed in order to protect their esoteric enclave, which culminates in the horrific outcome of the villagers’ (and, more generally, human) desire for segregation and fear of the Other, inviting a reflection on whether the monstrous lurks within or with-out.

In 'Vloeibare tijden. Leven in een eeuw van onzekerheid' (2007) drukt Zygmunt Bauman een productie- en een houdbaarheidsdatum op de droom van Andersland: ‘Utopieën werden samen met de moderniteit geboren en alleen in de sfeer van de moderniteit konden ze ademen.’ De observatie van de Pools-Britse socioloog vormt het uitgangspunt van dit hoofdstuk. Eerst beschrijf ik het verband tussen de doorbraak van de vroege moderniteit en de verschijning van 'Utopia' (1516), de tekst waarmee Thomas More het genre uitvond en waarvan de titel zich tot een generische naam ontwikkelde. Vervolgens reconstrueer ik hoe de utopische verbeelding vanaf de vroege negentiende eeuw onder impuls van het romantische denken kwade faam verwierf en in de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw door enkele invloedrijke literaire nachtmerries of zogenoemde dystopieën in de verdrukking raakte. In het tweede deel van dit hoofdstuk onderzoek ik hoe in onze zogeheten late moderniteit een acute vorm van ademnood uitbrak in Andersland. Is er vandaag nog leven denkbaar op de plek waar de moderne mens zijn eigen paradijs zou oprichten?

Since the 1978 economic reform, more and more residential areas in Chinese cities have walled themselves away from their surroundings to improve security. What do these gated communities look like as compared to their US counterparts? What impact does this new development have, especially on urban life in high-density Chinese cities? How do cities in a developing, socialist country pick up so quickly a capitalist real estate pattern started in the US just a few decades ago? This paper, the first on the topic, will present a preliminary investigation of these issues and propose alternative design solutions to address the problems.

In this paper, I aim to analyze the phenomenon of Gated Communities in Sao Paulo. Focusing specifically on Alphaville, a suburban real estate and gated community in Brazil, I want to stress and elaborate on the process of suburbanization in comparison with the one experienced in Flanders. The question I want to address is: How does the fear of the Urban space influence and take part in the processes of Flemish suburbanization and Sao Paulo suburban gated communities? In order to answer to this question, I will develop a comparative approach to the anti-urban sentiment in Flanders and in Alphaville gated community.

Abstrakt: Projektowanie współczesnych miast dostosowuje się do konsumpcyjnych zachowań mieszkańców, którzy ulegając różnorakim hasłom i ideologiom, są gotowi zapłacić za swoje pozorne bezpieczeństwo i zamieszkać w bezdusznej, ale chronionej kamerami przestrzeni deweloperskich osiedli. Amerykański wizjoner i architekt Lebbeus Woods uznał tworzenie architektury za akt polityczny, a większość architektów za egotycznych wykonawców podmiotów dzierżących władzę, którzy sami siebie uważają za kreatorów. Wobec nasilającej się tendencji gettoizowania przestrzeni publicznej w miastach trzeba zatem zająć postawę krytyczną. Analizując mechanizmy segregacji przestrzennych, wskazuję na zyskującą na znaczeniu a r c h i t e k t u r ę o p o r u jako formę spełniającej się utopii w tworzeniu miasta inkluzywnego.

Abstract – This article draws from  eldwork conducted in 2004-2008 in San Felice and Milano 2, using among other methods ethnographic observation and 34 in-depth interviews. It analyzes how discrimination- based segregation takes place in the refounded neighborhoods of Milan’s metropolis, and the relation of their inhabitants to spatial justice. The  rst section of the article shows in particular how the refusal of diversity by the residents was based on xenophobic, Islamophobic and Romaphobic prejudices and obsidional representations (more or less strong depending of the period). The second section focuses on the effects – over the sense of justice of the inhabitants – of a national public sphere where urban segregation is never addressed or even framed as a problem.

Résumé – À partir d’une enquête de terrain, combinant notamment observation participante et 34 entretiens approfondis, réalisée entre 2004 et 2008 dans les quartiers de San Felice et Milano 2, cet article analyse les ressorts de la ségrégation discriminante et le rapport à la justice spatiale dans les espaces refondés de la métropole milanaise. La première partie montre notamment comment le refus de la mixité s’appuyait chez les habitants de ces quartiers sur des préjugés et des sentiments obsidionaux xénophobes, islamophobes et tsiganophobes (plus ou moins prononcés selon la période considérée). La seconde partie s’intéresse quant à elle aux effets, sur le sens du juste des habitants, d’un espace public national dans lequel la ségrégation urbaine n’est pas une question débattue.

The global privatisation of the built environment is seen as a contemporary theme leading to today’s range of socio-spatial disparities. This study investigates the historical roots of Metro Manila’s enclave urbanism using the spatially applied graph theory centralities of spatial network analysis, as part of the combined analytical methodology of space syntax theory. This uncovers repeating patterns of social exclusion and enclave configuration as Manila expands from its core. This study presents the effects of Daniel Burnham’s City Beautiful Plan, which tries to create a unified civic core, but instead leads to Manila’s decentralisation and suburbanisation. The parcellation of land following the Spanish colonial rule’s encomienda system becomes the basis for privatisation of the urban fabric. It also becomes the imprint of car-centric Metro Manila’s circumferential spine road, C4/Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue, and its string of private mixed-use enclaves, central business districts and exclusive gated villages. This study uncovers Metro Manila’s unnatural movement economy within these enclaves, as consumption (retail/services, catering/F&B) points-of-interest locations deviate from space syntax’s movement economies, and is instead internalised within large, air- conditioned building footprints (shopping malls and deep floorplate office blocks) with large car parking capacities. This study then (following current local policy arguing for it) uses spatial network analysis to model the effects of opening Metro Manila’s exclusive gated villages to the flow of vehicles to help improve access to Metro Manila’s commercial mixed-use enclaves/CBDs. The study illustrates that doing so would instead, probabilistically induce road demand and create more vehicular traffic and congestion. Using the same methods, this study instead offers a counterproposal, by identifying key gated villages for selective “opening” of gates and lifting of village restrictions to pedestrianise and induce a (hopefully – more palatable to the village residents) bottom-up “yellow-field” redevelopment. This study concludes by placing Metro Manila within space syntax discourse and reflects on how space syntax as a body of knowledge could be expanded, practiced and applied in the Philippine context.

תקציר
  ספר זה עוסק במגדלי היוקרה בתל אביב, המהווים תופעה מתוקשרת מאוד, שתופסת תאוצה גדולה בשנים האחרונות. המחקר בוחן את התופעה מנקודת המבט של הספרות העוסקת בקהילות מגודרות (Gated communities). מתוך התבססות על שני חוקרים, שטוענים שמגדלים אלו מהווים שלב חדש בתוך מגמה ארוכת שנים של היבדלות חברתית בתל אביב, נעשה כאן ניסיון לבחון את מידת אמיתותה של טענה זו על ידי השוואה בין מגדלי יוקרה למגדלים אחרים בעיר. כמו כן, ישנו ניסיון לאפיין את מגדלי היוקרה על פי החלוקה של Blakely & Snyder (1997) לסוגים שונים של קהילות מגודרות. המחקר יוצר הגדרה למגדלי היוקרה, על מנת להבחין בינם לבין מגדלים אחרים. כמו כן, נעשה מיפוי של מגדלי היוקרה, ושל מגדלים לא יוקרתיים בסביבתם.
  המחקר יוצר תאור של מגדלי היוקרה על פי מאפיינים שונים המקושרים בספרות לתופעה של קהילות מגודרות. מאפיינים אלו הם: מאפייני הגידור הפיזי, הסיבות למעבר למקום המגורים, מידת ומאפייני הקהילתיות במקום, פרסומים, קיומם ואופיים של מבחני קבלה ומידת הפגיעה בפרטיות הדיירים עקב השימוש באמצעי אבטחה. כמו כן, ישנם מאפיינים שונים של ניהול: מנגנוני הניהול, קיומו של חוזה והנושאים הכלולים בו, מנגנון יידוע דיירים חדשים לגבי הכללים (שמייצר מצב בו כל הדיירים מודעים לכללים- קוד התנהגות שמוכר לכולם), מידת המעורבות של דיירים בניהול וקיומן של חוסר הסכמות ודרכי הטיפול בהן. בנוסף, המחקר יוצר תאור של מאפיינים נוספים של מגדלים אלו, שאינם קשורים לגידור, אך יש בהם כדי להיטיב את תאור התופעה של מגדלי היוקרה בעיר. נבדקים, בין השאר, מידת שביעות הרצון של הדיירים מדירתם לעומת הקודמת, מידת הרצון לגור במגדל, מקום מגוריהם הקודם, מגוריהם של ילדים בדירות, וכן מאפייני רקע של הדיירים, כגון גיל, מוצא, השכלה, דת ועוד.
  המחקר מבצע ניתוח השוואתי בין 34 מגדלים, שהוגדרו כיוקרתיים, לבין מגדלים רגילים בסביבתם, בנושאי גידור ואבטחה, גובה, הימצאות במתחמים ועוד. עיקר המחקר מתבסס על שאלונים, כאשר אוכלוסיית המחקר כוללת 47 דיירים מ-15 מגדלים או פרוייקטים יוקרתיים ו-102 דיירים מ-25 מגדלים רגילים, הנמצאים בסביבתם הקרובה ככל האפשר למגדלי היוקרה.
  המחקר מוצא מספר הבדלים בין מגדלי היוקרה למגדלים הרגילים. חלק מההבדלים מלמדים על היבדלות, כגון: מאפייני האבטחה, חשיבות הבטחון במעבר למגדל, קשר חזק למגדל ומספר הבדלים בנושא הניהול שמלמדים על מקצועיות והשקעה רבה יותר בנושא, שכוללת גם חתימה על חוזים מול חברות ניהול או אחזקה. בחלק מהפרוייקטים נמצאו גם בנייה באופן מסוגר, בידוד מהעיר ואף שימוש בגדרות. הבדלים אחרים מחזקים את סיווגם של מגדלי היוקרה כקהילות מסוג יוקרה או סגנון חיים: גובה בולט, שם ייחודי, דיירים שעבורם זהו מקום מגורים ראשי או משני בלבד ואף פרסומים הנוגעים ליוקרתיות וסגנון חיים, מתקני פנאי ונוף. ישנם הבדלים נוספים שלא קשורים דווקא לגידור, אך מתארים מאפיינים ייחודיים למגדלי היוקרה בעיר. הבולטים מבין הבדלים אלו הם: אי הימצאותם של מגדלים כאלו בשכונות דרום ודרום מזרח העיר, מקום המגורים הקודם (פחות תל אביב ביחס למגדלים האחרים), מיעוט דיירים נשואים ביחס למגדלים הרגילים, ובהתאמה מיעוט דיירים עם ילדים וגם פונקציות אחרות שחשוב לדיירי מגדלים אלו שיהיו בקרבת מקום המגורים.
  המחקר מוצא שמגדלי היוקרה מהווים שילוב של שני סוגי קהילות ע"פ Blakely & Snyder (1997): יוקרה ו-סגנון חיים. כמו כן הוא יוצר תאור של מאפייני מקרה הבוחן של מגדלי היוקרה בתל אביב על פי המאפיינים של קהילות מגודרות המוצעים ע"י Grant & Mittelsteadt (2004). לסיום, המחקר מציע מספר המלצות אפשריות לעירייה וליזמים, וכן מספר הצעות למחקר בעתיד.

People have built walls for thousands of years to protect cities, to divide cities and along the borders of polities.  This paper examines this process to place modern walls in a historical context and to ask in what ways is modern wall building similar and different from earlier walls. For most of human history, people primarily built walls as military technology. The European invention of cannon in the 16th century radically changed global wall construction. The further development of artillery in the late 19th century as well as tanks and aircraft in the 20th essentially made walls obsolete as military technology.  Within cities, walls defined and elaborated ethnic and religious differences but this custom also declined in the 19th century to be revived in the second half of the 20th century.  Many walled cites such as Carcassonne in France and long walls such as the Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall in England are important parts of global heritage.  Modern walls largely lack the military emphasis of earlier walls but retain the power to define, assert, protect, and ultimately polarize radical, ethnic, religious and national identities.

Chapter 8 from The City of Reason vol 5 The Economic Concept of the City
by Dr Peter Critchley

This paper analyses the emergence of the Informational City as the Dual City entrenched in social polarisation. This development has a socio-historical context. The breakdown of fordism has had a powerful disciplinary impact on the three partners in the social contract – capital, labour and the state. ‘Big’ business, ‘big’ labour and ‘big’ government have been radically ‘downsized’ so as to become ‘lean and mean’ (Harrison 1994). Yet these three components have not downsized in equal measure. Post-fordism is characterised by the even greater dominance of corporations, now taking transnational form, by the weakening of the power of labour and by the disengagement of the state from the social and political concern to regulate capital in the public interest. The distribution of the costs and benefits of transformation have been unequal. The new economic geography is intensifying rather than eradicating social and spatial inequalities, distancing the city further from the project of justice through a vicious cycle of metropolarities that are entrenching and exacerbating existing inequalities of class, race and gender.

Each year, millions flock to the US Lowcountry South in search of the illusory appeal of a bygone era; one that never existed outside the white imagination. The contemporary grand narrative of long defunct plantations, standing as beacons of a onceheld hope that the South would rise again, offers a cultural commentary on the state of racial politics in the United States-connecting the social and discursive practices of white supremacy to contemporary daily operations across an entire geographic region, in ways that illustrate the structural dialectic between capitalism and race-making. [Lowcountry plantation, race, Gullah/Geechee, New South, spatial dimensions of white supremacy]

In recent decades, gated communities have multiplied in Marseille,
the third French metropolis. The dynamics of enclosure have taken the form of secure new-built residential projects or closure of existing streets. These dynamics are facilitated by specific legacies of privatized
urbanism and informal arrangements for local management. As part of
a postindustrial urban renewal strategy, the city has undertaken  neoliberal options. The working-class city center continues to deteriorate while the centrifugal tendencies initiated by developers or co-owners are
reinforced. Unregulated, fences transform the local urban model, privatize environmental amenities, restrict access to public facilities, and limit pedestrian mobility. This paper is based on 10 years of research and field surveys that have helped to establish a statistical, geomatics and qualitative data-base of more than 1,500 residences.

ACCESSIBILITY,  GATED COMMUNITIES, MARSEILLE, NEOLIBERAL CITY, REAL ESTATE, URBAN FRAGMENTATION

The paper focuses on differences and similarities between two types of private residential communities (or homeowners associations): cohousing and gated communities. The reasoning is structured as a reply to a paper by Maria L. Ruiu in Sociological Inquiry, in which the author maintains that cohousing and gated communities are very different phenomena in terms of aims, goals, nature and characteristics. This paper argues that Ruiu’s reasoning is not entirely convincing since it presents some weaknesses, which are discussed, in regard to the alleged differences between cohousing and gated communities in terms the reasons guiding the choice of the community, openness of communal spaces, and the speculative nature of the projects. It is argued that cohousing and gated communities are more similar in terms of their constitutive characteristics than is usually thought; several differences between them can be recognized, but they are mainly epidermal. Some consequences of this fact in terms of public policy are discussed in the last part of the paper.

Cirka zwei Autostunden von Mexiko-Stadt liegt die Metropole Puebla, welche durch ihre koloniale
Barockarchitektur und der außergewöhnlichen Küche berühmt geworden ist. In den letzten Jahrzehnten
wurde Puebla weltweit besser bekannt als Stadt mit dem größten VW-Werk außerhalb
Deutschlands und seit letztem Jahr auch durch das neue Audi-Werk. Aufgrund vieler Hochschulbildungs-
und Freizeitmöglichkeiten – darunter auch eine deutschsprachige Schule – ist Puebla zu
einem sehr attraktiven Ort für deutsche Familien mutiert.

In this article I examine grassroots responses to state-directed urban renewal in two poor neighborhoods in Istanbul. Through detailed analysis of resident perspectives and urban association tactics, I explore various factors that shape the trajectories of
resistance to urban renewal, including solidarity networks, levels of participation and trust in local neighborhood associations, strength of neighborhood identity, extra-local support, and the traditions and channels of negotiation with state actors. I argue that these factors are articulated by a distinct “politics of compensation”—a term that I borrow from Ananya Roy—that is particular to the contemporary neoliberal condition. I find that grassroots mobilizations in Istanbul do not necessarily operate in opposition to neoliberalism; in fact, many struggles remain within the conceptual space of neoliberalism and its cost-benefit calculations. These findings contribute to the emerging literature on struggles against urban renewal in the global south.
Keywords: Istanbul; urban renewal; grassroots resistance; neoliberalism; displacement

Gated communities are considered to be the most reflective mirror of neoliberal approaches. Within the Egyptian context, they have attracted a large sector of the elite residents in order to subsume a considerable percentage of the population from the urban centre in order to give way, according to the elite authoritarian bodies, for economic growth and stability. On another level, several scholars and authors have been questioning degree of success to which such privatized territories have contributed to the nation, not just in relation to urban features but also on the political, economic and social levels. This paper takes a closer look at gated communities in Egypt from a bird-eye view, the reasons behind their emergence and how they are managed within the national context in order to pursue neoliberal policies. It also examines the long-lasting relationship that has been established between the public and the private sectors since the 1980s and 1990s which has set a foot within capital zones to implement elite visions, and most importantly introduces the concept of the " commons " as a democratic trend that rather questions the level of inclusion of several stakeholders in the decision making processes, including local residents, household organizations, market policy makers, private developers and local government. As Sutton & Fahmi argue " Exclusive suburbs have contributed as private dynamism have replaced public planning " (2001, p. 135).

When residential segregation is mentioned in news coverage and when it is talked about in everyday discourse in Sweden, it is very often associated with immigration and minority
groups living in the poorer areas of the city. A common assumption is that “immigrants” actively withdraw from society and that they choose to live together rather than integrating
with the majority population.
This study, however, argues that discussions about segregation cannot be limited to the areas where minorities and poorer-income groups live, but must understand segregation as a process occurring in the whole system of urban neighbourhoods. In order to reach a more complete
understanding of the ways in which segregation processes are at work in contemporary Swedish cities, knowledge is needed about the inhabitants with greater resources and power to
choose their dwellings and residential areas.
The neighbourhood choices of more privileged groups, and the socio-spatial reproduction of the areas of the upper-middle class, are investigated by applying a qualitative ethnographic
framework. The thesis studies two neighbourhoods located in the post-industrial city of Malmö: Victoria Park, a US-inspired “lifestyle community” which is the first of its kind in
Sweden, and Bellevue, older but still one of the most exclusive and high-status neighbourhoods in the city. In order to understand self-segregation among privileged groups,
the study especially scrutinises the concepts of class and security as well as the impacts of neoliberalisation on the Swedish housing market.
The main argument of the study is that the self-segregation by members of the uppermiddle class demonstrates a rift which runs through the urban fabric of Malmö, splintering the
city up into perceived separate worlds. The existence of physical, symbolic and social boundaries in Victoria Park and Bellevue reproduces these neighbourhoods as exclusive,
private and tranquil spaces of the upper-middle class. By locating themselves in the calm and safe part of the city, the upper-middle class can buy security as a commodity, rather than relying on the welfare state to provide it for them.

Development-Induced displacement have become a common phenomenon in developing countries where in order to facilitate any infrastructure project, Dam project or any Transportation project, there is a huge displacement that takes place. With the people who struggles through such displacements suffers a wrath of disturbance that can be seen on the social fabric of their society and economic status of their families. Sabarmati Riverfront had accounted a displacement of 11000 such families from the year 2006 to 2010. The displaced families were relocated to 6 different BSUP sites out of which Vatwa accounted to largest number of relocation. With the R&R policy that talked about a healthy compensation to these urban poor, they suffered from a socioeconomic crisis. Formations of places like Hindustan and Paki-stan were also observed in places like Vatwa to places where the majority of people living were Hindus and Muslims. A Municipal politics was also observed during such displacements who insensitively forced involuntary resettlements. It becomes very important for us to understand the socioeconomic impact of Sabarmati River-front on the life of such displaced communities. We did a SocioEconomic survey where we also observed the behavioural changes that came into people when they talked about displacements, government, AMC and people they are surrounded with. We also did interviews with different experts from the field of urban planning, journalism, and legal institutions to get a different view of people regarding such displacements. After doing our survey and interviews , the team across some very astounding findings which is mentioned in our research.

Gated communities represent a modern housing trend that is quickly gaining prominence across the United States and challenging how researchers typically conceptualize neighborhoods. Gated communities feature distinct characteristics that differentiate them from non-gated neighborhoods, characteristics that likely bear important implications for neighborhood crime rates. For example, gated communities feature physical barriers, including gates and walls, which regulate access into the community and bar opportunities for potential offenders. Additionally, gated community residents may foster shared beliefs, values, and investment in their community that bolster informal social control, further insulating the community from crime. Despite the growing prevalence of gated communities and their potential influence on neighborhood crime rates, few studies examine the relationship between gated communities and crime. The present study extends this body of literature by conducting the first neighborhood-level analysis of gated communities and crime. Examining gated communities across Orange County, CA, we find that gated communities are associated with lower rates of violent and property crime compared to non-gated neighborhoods. These findings highlight the importance of gated communities in shaping neighborhood conditions and as an area for future research.

The term globalisation suggests ideas that resemble a process of homogenisation in a global scale.  However, empirical evidence suggests that in numerous places a revitalisation of the local has taken place.  Free Cities are spaces of local revitalisation that have resulted in and from globalisation.  This thesis analyses the development of libertarian Free Cities in Honduras after a Constitutional Crisis that took place in 2009 cut off many of the networks to the global markets of the country for several months.  As a result of this political crisis, politicians and entrepreneurs in Honduras allied and sought for radical ideological changes to the ways in which they took part in international trade.  In 2011 a law creating an autonomous territory inside of Honduras was enacted, and by 2013 a new law modified the Constitution to create the first Free City territories in the world.  A critical analysis of the ideology behind these city projects is the methodology used to do an examination of the ideas behind Libertarianism with interviews done to leaders behind this movement.  The thesis focuses on a critical discussion of the discourse of the interviewees and on how are these ideas relevant to the further perspectivisation of the theories of modernity, globalisation and territorialisation in the field of city building studies.  As well, in understanding how the ideas of the Libertarian ideologues that promote the projects are being reshaped and altered by local, regional and global processes and transformations.

Kairo hat mit zahlreichen ökologischen und sozialen Problemen zu kämpfen: Eine hohe Luftverschmutzung, die Degradierung der älteren Stadtviertel sowie das stetige Anwachsen informeller Siedlungen auf eigentlich wertvollem Agrarland, sind nur eine Auswahl. Die Probleme des Großraum Kairo erklären einerseits den Wunsch der Ägypter, in geschlossenen, privat organisierten und somit zuverlässig versorgten und gepflegten Gated Communities in den Satellitenstädten zu leben, andererseits wird die Bedeutung einer nachhaltigeren Stadtentwicklung auf allen Ebenen deutlich. Im Jahr 2011, dem Jahr großer politischer Veränderungen in Ägypten, hat der Großraum Kairo geschätzte 20 Millionen Einwohner, die meisten von ihnen leben in hochverdichteten, großenteils informellen Stadtvierteln. Die Vernachlässigung informeller Viertel durch den Staat, sowie die sichtbare Segregation und Bevorzugung der oberen Einkommensgruppen, sind Gründe für eine wachsende Unzufriedenheit, die im Frühjahr 2011 eskalierte und schließlich zum Sturz des ägyptischen Präsidenten Husni Mubarak führte. In diesem Kontext stellt sich die Frage, ob die zahlreichen Gated Communities im Großraum Kairo nicht nur Teil des Problems, sondern – angesichts ihrer wachsenden Bedeutung und ihrer Vermarktung als nachhaltige urbane Strukturen – auch Teil einer Lösung sein können. Diese Fragestellung aus dem Jahr 2011 wird angesichts der Ankündigung des Baus einer vollkommen neuen Hauptstadt für Ägypten im Jahr 2015 erneut hoch aktuell - stellen die hier vorgestellten privaten Stadtentwicklungsprojekte doch die ideellen Vorläufer dieses neuen Plans dar.

During the last decade, ‘gated communities and urban segregation’ has become a widely analysed subject for the researchers. Due to the fast urban restructuring of neoliberalism, the number of gated communities still increases dramatically in many global and globalizing cities of the world. In this study, we examine the emergence of gated communities and fenced cities in Santiago, Chile and Istanbul, Turkey as a by-product of neoliberal economic system that followed the coup d’états. We argue that in both countries coups set in the Cold War mentality in order to ward off “communist takeover” and/or end “class welfare” were quick to install neoliberal policies as an antidote of such “dangers”. These policies set in motion during authoritarian times were continued under democratic regimes as well, preparing the ground for similar approach to the politics of space and place across continents. Therefore gated communities as “expression of inequality and exclusion” (Bosdorf, Hidalgo and Sanchez 2007) in both cities are essentially an outcome of late and heightened capitalism, coupled by the influence of globalization. Unlike the early examples of United States where gated communities were found in the peripheries of the city, in the cases of Santiago and Istanbul, gated communities appear as new closed settlements within the present fabric of the city, highlighting the contrast between different social classes living side by side. In these examples of newly globalizing cities, gated communities arise as products of the culture of consumption, in relation to the global phenomena. Being formed next to the poor neighbourhoods, the emerging trend of gated communities make these cities leading examples of social and spatial segregation. Leading to further segregation, “wall” becomes a tangible symbol of social and economic polarization. In this study, we highlight the parallel emergence of gated communities across continents and analyse the impact of top-down neoliberal reforms on spatial formations.

Keywords: coup d’états, neoliberal reforms, urban segregation, gated communities, Istanbul, Santiago