Gated Communities in the United States: The Fortification of Living Space in the Light of a Transformed Suburbia

Eike Christian Meuter

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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Sociology - Habitation and Urban Sociology, grade: 1,0, University of Bremen, l...

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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Sociology - Habitation and Urban Sociology, grade: 1,0, University of Bremen, language: English, abstract: This paper is in essence a work about repetition and preservation. It gives details on the measures of Americans in order to follow their individual notions of happiness. The home, residence and place of residence alike, is essential in this process and it is our aim to discuss the most recent step in securing that this place remains what it used to be. Defined by the move of the masses to the periphery, the ideal of the suburban homeowner has persisted over the last 100 years. But this ideal now includes gates. A mayor reason for this move, that in fact so highly is against what life on the periphery used to be, is the transformed character of suburbia. Now, the gated community has become part of suburban lifestyle. It is the preservation of the old by repeating the standard measures of the old. And it is a way that more and more Americans are making use of adding to it a dimension of pre-eminent national importance. While various other countries, among them Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, South Africa or Australia, have experienced the same phenomenon, we want to focus on the situation in the United States. It is in America where there has been a close connection between the policies set by the process of suburbanization and the subsequent fortification of living space in the suburbs. Moreover, in the United States the phenomenon has in some parts of the country developed into a mass movement and has thereby generated sufficient scientific attention. On the one hand, we embark by trying to shed light on the relations between the new character of suburbia that has seen the arrival of urban problems, and the ongoing proliferation of walled neighbourhoods. But the focus is undoubtedly lying on the analysis of gated communities itself; those neighbourhoods that progressively hail the private realm in order to keep unwanted problems out. And those neighbourhoods that so frequently bear antagonisms that seem to work against the desires of the residents. Chapter one begins with an overview of the suburbanization process, exploring the different phases of the move to the periphery and the character of the traditional American suburb. It continues with the description of the processes that leads to a transformed suburbia describing how characteristics previously associated with the city have reached the fringe. Further, follows an examination of the early methods on how to fight those new suburban problems. [...]