Gated communities as generic patterns in suburban landscapes

This paper aims at demonstrating that gated communities, though often presented as a recent trend of security-oriented urbanism, which have spread all over the world in the last two decade, are indeed a classical and generic form in urban sprawl and suburban landscape. A first part addresses a critical analysis of the discourse on gated communities, both as it is expressed in the American social-science literature and in its French counterpart, motivated by the recent multiplication of private enclaves in France. Much of the French literature explains gating as an American model of a security-oriented urbanism, though a partial explanation. In order to begin with a better understanding of the generic patterns of gating, this paper proposes a comparative study of the original forms of gating, which occurred in Paris faubourgs and early 19th century suburbs, and the originals forms of gating in the U.S. This provides a different perspective on the global diffusion of gated residential estates. The demonstration develops two main sets of hypothesis. First, gated residential enclaves are indeed a profound expression of classical patterns in the production of suburban landscapes. Second, there is a resilience of gating in suburban areas : residential gates are erected where fences and gating were already present in land-use patterns