Fortress UK? Gated communities, the spatial revolt of the elites and time-space trajectories of segregation

Residential development segregated by physical boundaries and gates has proved popular in the US and South Africa where fear of crime and freedom of choice are appealed to as legitimating factors in their proliferation. In the UK there is anecdotal evidence that such ‘gated communities’ are growing in popularity. The paper has two key themes. First, a diagnosis of the location and prevalence of gated development in England as well as details of the relative integration of their residents in a series of case studies. Second, the paper attempts to think through the impacts of gating in relation to current urban policy and theory. In drawing on substantial interview material we propose a dynamic conceptualisation of residential segregation influenced by time-space geography. We use the example of gated communities to suggest the existence of time-space trajectories of segregation in which closed linkages between key fields, such as work and home, enable social distance and minimisation of perceived risks to be managed by elite social groups. We suggest that gating extends segregatory tendencies in the city and requires planning policy responses which curtail their propensity to create havens of social withdrawal which threaten the public realm.