Restricted Mobilities: Access to, and Activities in, Public and Private Spaces

Abstract

Privatization of public spaces in the contemporary city has increased over the past few decades, but only a few studies have approached this trend from a mobility perspective. Therefore, this article seeks to make a contribution to the field by exploring two Australian examples of private spaces in the city, gated communities and shopping centres, through the ‘mobility’ lenses. The article illustrates how different mobility systems enable and/or restrict public access to private–public spaces, and it points out that proprietary communities create an unequal potential for human movement and access in the city. The main argument in the article is that many mobility systems enable specialization of places that are targeted at a special section of the population. This means that various forms of mobilities (e.g. automobility, virtual mobile communication technologies) not only create new opportunities for urban life, but also serve as one of the most critical components in the production of new exclusion and stratification. In conclusion, the article therefore suggests that future urban research and planning also need to apply the mobility perspective in order to understand the mechanisms between flows of movement and the understanding fixed spaces in the cities, and how different mobility systems play an important role in sustaining the exclusiveness that often characterizes private/public spaces. Likewise, from a mobility perspective, the specific consequences that the proprietary communities have on the surrounding communities seem to be an important further question for research and planning.

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