Private security and public space: new approaches to the theory and practice of gated communities

Abstract

This article reviews a range of arguments and some of the evidence on the emergence of gated communities or as they will be described in this article gated residential developments (GRDs). The focus of the article will be the UK context, and it takes issue with the largely negative dominant academic narratives of GRDs, that they are private sector enclaves of high income households. The article argues that interest in GRDs has been limited from both an empirical and theoretical perspective and that this phenomenon requires more complex analysis, situating it within a broader process of ‘securitization’. The article considers a case study of a housing development, comprising gated and non-gated properties and including privately owned and socially rented properties, illustrating the desires of residents for increased security. The analysis uses the concept of ‘club economics’ to consider the critical issues behind the development of ‘private neighbourhoods’ and considers alternative classifications of gating.

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