Spatial expressions of neo-liberal urbanization: Gated communities in İstanbul

Abstract

In the last.two decades, a remarkable growth of gated communities has been observed in almost all metropolises around the world. Empirical studies have largely attributed the global proliferation of gated communities to changes in the middle and upper classes' subjective experiences of contemporary urban life, among them increasing fear of crime and need for safety have been said to occupy the central place. While these studies have rightly emphasized the need to account for local meanings and functions of gated communities to explain their emergence, they have missed the global-local connections and the role of political economic actors in facilitating the spreading of this global urban form. This paper argues that the production and dissemination of gated communities are not solely local enter-prises; they take place in a global context and are linked to transnational ideologies, discourses and networks. It situates the development of gated communities in Istanbul in the larger political economic context of neo-liberal globalization and analyzes the role of the state, developers, and transnational actors in transplanting and translating this global urban form into the local context. It also presents a case study of Kemer Country, one of the leading gated communities in the city, to demonstrate in detail how this localization process has been done on the ground. As the case of Kemer Country demonstrates, gated communities answer and give shape to urban elite's desire to escape from a city where social heterogene¬ity and cultural fragmentation mark public life and local governments fail to provide quality infrastructure and consistent provision of services. This solution, however, is problematic in many ways. As master-planned developments, which come as packaged commodity neighborhoods, private enclaves encourage socio-spatial segregation and cultural fragmentation in a more systematic way and on a massive scale. Upper income groups can isolate themselves from lower classes and build communities based on differences of culture, identity, and lifestyle. Secondly, community members can forge strong communitarian relations based on class and cultural homogeneity, but segregation alters their experience of others and induces fear and suspicion towards the "outside world." Lastly, by supporting private com-munitarian solutions to common urban problems, gated communities encourage a de facto institutionalization of a socially and spatially stratified urban citizenship. Those who can afford to live in private neighborhoods can have access to quality infrastructure and amenities, while others are excluded because of their social and economic status.