“Housing Imaginations: new concepts, new theories, new researchers” ENEMIES WITHIN? GATED COMMUNITIES UNHINGED

2Introduction Gated communities are a fascinating phenomenon: what motivates people to voluntarily wall themselves in? They are a relatively new phenomenon, as historically, “material enclosure in the design of urban populations has been the exception. ” (Kosloff, 1992, p.104). Mediaeval cities were of course walled but their walls enclosed the whole population. Today’s gated communities are a market response to the perceived failure of government to ensure maintenance of property values and personal security. Groups formed of individuals from largely the same sector of society buy environmental quality and security in a retreat behind walls, gates and even their own security forces. This paper outlines the different types and scale of such developments, together with the legal basis of gated communities both here and in the States, before moving on to their treatment in fiction. It is not surprising that gated communities appeal to novelists, as a number of perennial motifs can be played out against the background they provide: fo