The Upper Sonoran Lifestyle: Gated Communities in Scottsdale, Arizona

Abstract

While much has been written on gated communities and the motivations and proposed implications of such a building paradigm, little has informed us about how a landscape is socially and economically transformed by the influx of this community design principle. This article explores a place defined by gated communities highlighting significant differences in social and community life in the city of Scottsdale, Arizona. This is a location, unlike many other gated spaces, where the gating of the community has little to do with avoiding crime. It is mainly a symbol of prestige and exclusivity. Housing in the Northern part of Scottsdale is mostly gated, master‐planned communities geared toward the upper class while the Southern part of Scottsdale is comprised of older housing stock and more organic community life. Both primary and secondary data are analyzed to highlight the socio‐cultural nature of the Upper Sonoran landscape. This article also explores social theory and proposes the use of multi‐scalar thinking and grounded fieldwork in gathering a more detailed, multi‐dimensional picture of community life behind the gate. This picture illustrates the changing nature of institutional forces shaping urban life as neoliberal policies in local government engender the proliferation of private institutions, as residents are willing to relinquish personal property rights for economic and social stability.

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