Beyond gated communities; urban gating, soft boundaries and networks of influence and affluence

Abstract

This paper sets out a road map to reconceptualise our understanding of what has come to be known in the academic literature as ‘gated communities’. In exploring how conflict, particularly urban conflict, has been a key driver in promoting aspects of fortification in the built environment subsequently leading to the militarisation and fragmentation of urban space, the paper suggests that the debates around these aspects of fortification and militarisation in the built environment should shift from a focus on gated communities to one on urban gating - a paradigm shift from the familiar notion of the hard edges of the self-contained gated community to more fluid softer boundaries and a generic notion of urban gating, part of a network. This network extends beyond borders and geographies to link affluent communities in the North to affluent communities in the South through a network of influence. These are the building blocks of the new vocabulary we can use to explore urban gating: conflict, soft boundaries, and networks of influence and affluence.