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ABSTRACT
Urban space is accepted as an inextricable part of public life. It is assumed that the upper-middle class has been sequestering itself from the rest of society by living in enclosed and private spaces. This intentional disengagement from public life and public spaces has been studied by the literature on gated communities. This article operationalizes the gated community beyond the debate on social segregation and includes it in the discussion of the use, production and transformation of urban spaces along with the isolation, privatization, and idealization of a specific place. This study departs from the understanding that the gated community is simply a new form of social segregation. Instead, it acknowledges enclosed residential areas as semi-public spaces in which attributes of public and private spaces are merged.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers, Çağatay Topal, and Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ for their invaluable comments and feedbacks in the writing up of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Ayça Ergun is Associate Professor of Sociology at Middle East Technical University and vice-chair of Center for Black Sea and Central Asia. Her research interests include democratization, state-society relations, civil society and internationalization in the South Caucasus and Turkey. She is the author of various articles in Field Methods, Journal of European Integration, Journal of Developing Societies, and Journal of Royal Asiatic Society.
Ceren Kulkul is PhD candidate at Humboldt University of Berlin as a member of Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Middle East Tehcnical University. Her research interests include urbanization, urban development, community actio,n and social theory.
Notes
1 Robins and Aksoy, “Istanbul Between Civilisation and Discontent”; Öncü, “İdeal Ev Mitolojisi”; Bali, Tarz-ı Hayat'tan Life Style'a; and Geniş, “Producing Elite Localities.”
2 Caldeira, City of Walls; Blakely and Snyder, Fortress America,” and “Divided We Fall”; Atkinson and Blandy, Gated communities.
3 Caldeira, City of Walls; Le Goix, “Gated Communities”; and Vesselinov, “Members Only.”
4 Blakely and Snyder, “Separate Places,” and Graham and Marvin, Splintering Urbanism.
5 Low, “The Edge and the Center.”
6 McKenzie, Privatopia.
7 Roitman, “Gated Communities,” 32.
8 Low, Behind the Gates; Hook and Vrdoljak, “Gated Communities, Heterotopia”; and Soja, Postmetropolis.
9 Blakely and Snyder, “Divided We Fall,” 1.
10 Judd,. “The Rise,” Caldeira, City of Walls; and Graham and Marvin, Splintering Urbanism.
11 Caldeira, City of Walls; Le Goix, “Gated Communities”; and Vesselinov, “Members Only.”
12 Harvey, Rebel Cities, 14.
13 Blakely and Snyder, Fortress America, and Le Goix, “Gated Communities.”
14 Erman, “The Politics of Squatter”; Yasa, Ankara 'da Gecekondu Aileleri; Ayata, “Gecekondularda Kimlik Sorunu”; and Erder, Kentsel Gerilim.
15 Etöz, “Varoş,” and Tok, “A Critical Approach.”
16 Işık and Pınarcıoğlu, Nöbetleşe yoksulluk and Erdoğan et al., Yoksulluk Halleri.
17 Robins and Aksoy, “Istanbul Between Civilisation and Discontent”; Öncü, “İdeal Ev Mitolojisi”; Bali, Tarz-ı Hayat'tan Life Style'a; Pérouse and Danış, “Zenginliğin mekânda yeni yansımaları”; and Geniş, “Producing Elite Localities”
18 Ayata, “Gecekondularda Kimlik Sorunu”; Pérouse and Danış, “Zenginliğin mekânda yeni yansımaları”; and Marmasan, Bir Mekansal.
19 Karademir Hazır, “Boundaries of Middle-Class Identities,” and Yücebaş, “Orta sınıflar.”
20 Robins and Aksoy, “Istanbul Between Civilisation and Discontent”; Geniş, “Producing Elite Localities”; and Lovering and Evren, “Urban Development.”
21 Blakely and Snyder, “Divided We Fall.”
22 Rakoff, “Ideology in Everyday Life,” 85.
23 Townsend, “Gendered Space?” 42.
24 Ibid., 42.
25 Pérouse and Danış, “Zenginliğin mekânda yeni yansımaları”; Marmasan, Bir Mekansal; Geniş, “Producing Elite Localities”; Ertuna, “Gated Communities”; Töre and Som, “Sosyo-Mekânsal Ayrışmada”; and Yücebaş, “Orta sınıflar.”
26 For an analysis of advertisements of construction companies to see how marketing strategies of gated communities follow the same pattern of security concerns, promotion of social amenities and exclusive lifestyle, see Marmasan, Bir Mekansal.
27 Wilson-Doenges, “An Exploration of Sense of Community”; Low, “Urban Fear of Crime”; Vilalta, “Fear of Crime”; and Abdullah, Salleh and Sakip, “Fear of Crime.”
28 Beck, “Living in the World,” 332.