Gated communities in Bahrain: historical and urban geographies

Residential gating is a notable element in cities worldwide, but notable gaps exist in studies of residential gating in smaller cities and the Global South. This article examines the historical and urban geographies of residential gating in the Arab Gulf, using a case study from Bahrain. This research adds new nuance to studies of gated communities by presenting a case study from a smaller city in the Global South and integrating observations and interviews. The results explain the reasons for gated community development in Bahrain and provide insight into gated communities’ built and social environments in Bahrain. The article concludes that in ordinary cities, understanding urban development in general, and gated developments in particular, demands attention to their spatiotemporal contexts. Attention to these contexts can provide new insights that contribute to efforts to interpret and theorise contemporary urbanisation processes.

A Comparison of Security in City and Small-Town Gated Developments in the Western Cape province, South Africa

Gated developments are a defining feature of the post-apartheid residential landscape. The fortification practices witnessed in gated developments are part of a wider securitisation of the South African urban- and ruralscapes. This research resides in the ambit of the theory of crime and violence as a precursor to the growth in gated developments. Research on gated developments has tended to focus on their proliferation in larger urban settlements, with scant attention being paid to gated developments in smaller settlements and in rural areas. However, non-metropolitan gated developments are a reality, and they display similar security features as those found in metropolitan areas. This paper compares the security levels of gated developments in a suburb of Cape Town with those in small towns in the Western Cape province. Security features are quantified to determine whether differences in securitisation levels exist between the locales. The gated developments in the city display higher levels of security than those in small towns. However, a closer analysis of small-town gated developments reveals high security levels in towns where tourism is the mainstay of the local economy. As the technology of security migrates from military applications to residential applications, a securified small-town future is a real possibility.

A spatial analysis of gating in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Growing trends of fear and insecurity in cities have sparked the re-visitation of gating, posing significant problems for citizens and policy makers alike. Gated developments are a global phenomenon occurring in diverse countries in both the developed North and developing South. Metropolitan areas in South Africa have also witnessed a rapid increase in the number and spread of gated developments since the late 1980s. Development of enclosed neighbourhoods has become increasingly popular, gaining widespread support for their utopic lifestyle and safety features. On the whole, high levels of crime and fear of crime have led to the construction of defensible space, in the form of gated developments, resulting in elevated levels of segregation. This paper provides a spatial analysis on gated developments in the non-metropolitan setting of Bloemfontein. The pattern and timeframe of gating in this city is shown to be similar to those found elsewhere in South Africa and, indeed, globally. Overall, it is the contention that gating is a trend not only seen in large metropolitan areas, but across the entire urban hierarchy of South Africa, and, as a consequence, requires investigation far beyond its metropolitan regions to more fully understand gated developments.