Gated communities in Bahrain: historical and urban geographies

Author:
Key words: , , , , , , ,
Issue: Volume 15, Issue 2, 2021

Abstract


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.b>

Full text


Permalink (doi)



Authors Affiliations


Zia Salim

California State University, Fullerton, USA
* Correspondence address.
Email: zsalim@fullerton.edu


References


Alaily-Mattar, N. (2008), “Beyond gated communities: Detachment and concentration in networked nodes of affluence in the city of Beirut”, Urban Design International, vol.13, no.4, p.263–271.
Al-Ghatam, W. (2005), “Do villages shape our cities?”, Paper presented at the 5th International Space Syntax Symposium, Delft, the Netherlands, 6 January 2019, 17 June 2020, shorturl.at/etCY0
Alhowaish, A. (2015), “Eighty years of urban growth and socioeconomic trends in Dammam Metropolitan Area, Saudi Arabia”, Habitat International, vol. 50, p. 90-98.
Al Raouf, A. (2007), “Cities in the clouds and pearl towers: Gated vertical residential developments, An analytical study of New Juffair, Bahrain” (in Arabic), Paper presented at Housing Symposium 3, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 20-22 May 2007.
Al-Najjar, B. (1999), The sociology of the Arabian Gulf: Studies on the problematic of development and modernisation (in Arabic), Dar al-Kunuz al-Adabiya, Beirut.
Atkinson, R. and Blandy, S. (2005), “Introduction: International perspectives on the new enclavism and the rise of gated communities”, Housing Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 177–186.
Atlas, R. and LeBlanc, W. (1994), “The impact on crime of street closures and barricades: A Florida case study”, Security Journal, vol. 5, no. 3, p. 140–145.
Bagaeen, S. and Uduku, O. (2010), Gated communities: Social sustainability in contemporary and historical gated developments, Earthscan, London.
Beaverstock, J. (2002), “Transnational elites in global cities: British expatriates in Singapore’s Financial District”, Geoforum, vol. 33, no. 4, p. 525–538.
Ben-Hamouche, M. (2008), “Manama: The metamorphosis of an Arab Gulf city”, in Y. Elsheshtawy (ed.) The evolving Arab City: Tradition, modernity and urban development, p. 184–217, Routledge, New York.
Blander, A., Moser, S. and Avni, N. (2018), “Religio-nationalism and “soft boundaries”: Urban gating in West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv”, Geoforum, vol. 96, p. 227–235.
Borsdorf, A., Hildalgo, H. and Vidal-Koppmann, S. (2016), “Social segregation and gated communities in Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires: A comparison”, Habitat International, vol. 54, p. 18–27.
Brenner, N. (2018), “Debating planetary urbanisation: For an engaged pluralism”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 36, p. 570-590.
Brenner, N. and Schmid, C. (2015), “Towards a new epistemology of the urban?”, City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Theory, Policy, Action, vol. 19, no. 2-3, p. 151–182.
Brickell, K. and Datta, A. (2011), “Introduction”, in K. Brickell and A. Datta (eds.) Translocal Geographies: Spaces, Places, Connections, p. 3-20, Ashgate, Burlington.
Caldeira, T. (1996), “Fortified enclaves: The new urban segregation”, Public Culture, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 303–328.
Caldeira, T. (2000), City of walls: Crime, segregation, and citizenship in Sao Paulo, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Cséfalvay, Z. (2011), “Gated communities for security or prestige? A public choice approach and the case of Budapest”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 735–752.
De Duren, N. (2006), “Planning a la carte: The location patterns of gated communities around Buenos Aires in a decentralised planning context”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 30, no. 2, p. 308–327.
Dinka, J. and Dakhli, M. (2009), “Perceived discrimination in the Arabian Gulf: The case of migrant labor in Kuwait”, Psychology Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 47–59.
Dresch, P. and Piscatori, J. (2005), Monarchies and nations: Globalisation and identity in the Arab states of the Gulf, I.B.Tauris, New York.
Elsheshtawy, Y. (2008), “Transitory sites: Mapping Dubai’s ‘forgotten’ urban spaces”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 32, no. 4, p. 968–988.
Ewers, M. (2017), “International knowledge mobility and urban development in rapidly globalising areas: Building global hubs for talent in Dubai and Abu Dhabi”, Urban Geography, vol. 38, no. 2, p. 291–314.
Ewers, M., Dicce, R., Poon, J., Chow, J. and Gengler, J. (2016), “Creating and sustaining Islamic financial centers: Bahrain in the wake of financial and political crises”, Urban Geography, vol. 39, no. 1, p. 3–25.
Faugier, J. and Sargeant, M. (1997), “Sampling hard to reach populations”, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 26, no. 4, p. 790–797.
Friedmann, J. (1986), “The world city hypothesis”, Development and Change, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 69–83.
Geniş, Ş. (2007), “Producing elite localities: the rise of gated communities in Istanbul”, Urban Studies, vol. 44, no. 4, p. 771–798.
Glasze, G. (2006), “Segregation and seclusion: The case of compounds for Western expatriates in Saudi Arabia”, GeoJournal, vol. 66, no. 1, p. 83–88.
Glasze, G. and Alkhayyal, A. (2002), “Gated housing estates in the Arab world: Case studies in Lebanon and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia”, Environment and Planning B, vol. 29, no. 3, p. 321–336.
Hirt, S. and Petrović, M. (2011), “The Belgrade wall: The proliferation of gated housing in the Serbian capital after socialism”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 753–777.
Horta-Duarte, R. (2012), “It does not even seem like we are in Brazil: Country clubs and gated communities in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1951-1964”, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 44, no. 3, p.435-466.
Jarman, R. (2007), Historical maps of Bahrain 1817-1970, Archive Editions, Slough, England.
Kuppinger, P. (2004), “Exclusive greenery: new gated communities in Cairo”, City & Society, vol. 16, no. 2, p. 35–61.
Landman, K. (2020), “Gated communities in South Africa: An emerging paradox”, in R. Massey and A. Gunter (eds.) Urban Geography in South Africa, Perspectives and Theory, 6 January 2020, shorturl.at/jpwNU.
Lang, R. and Danielsen, K. (1997), “Gated communities in America: Walling out the world?”, Housing Policy Debate, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 867–899.
Le Goix, R. (2005), “Gated communities: Sprawl and social segregation in Southern California”, Housing Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 323–343.
Le Goix, R. and Vesselinov, E. (2013), “Gated communities and house prices: suburban change in Southern California”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 37, no. 6, p. 2129–2151.
Leisch, H. (2002), “Gated communities in Indonesia”, Cities, vol. 19, no. 5, p. 341–350.
Lemanski, C. (2006), “The impact of residential desegregation on social integration: Evidence from a South African neighbourhood”, Geoforum, vol. 37, no. 3, p. 417–435.
Low, S. (2003), Behind the gates: Life, security, and the pursuit of happiness in Fortress America, Routledge, New York.
Mantey, D. (2017), “Social consequences of gated communities: The case of suburban Warsaw”, The Professional Geographer, vol. 69, no. 1, p. 151–161.
Mionel, V. and Mionel, O. (2012), “Changing the paradigm of living in Bucharest: The economic segregation of the urban privileged”, Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 35–52.
Mohammad, R. and Sidaway, J. (2012), “Spectacular urbanisation amidst variegated geographies of globalisation: Learning from Abu Dhabi’s trajectory through the lives of South Asian men”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 606–627.
Morales, E. (2019), “From macro-level policies to micro-level practices: Changing global economic landscapes and the proliferation of middle-class gated communities in Mexico”, Transactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning, vol. 3, p. 141-154.
Morse, J. and Field, P. (1995), Nursing research: The application of qualitative approaches, Croom Helm, London.
Potter, W. and Levine-Donnerstein, D. (1999), “Rethinking validity and reliability in content analysis”, Journal of Applied Communication Research, vol. 27, no. 3, p. 258–284.
Price, M. and Benton-Short, L. (2007), “Immigrants and world cities: From the hyper-diverse to the bypassed”, GeoJournal, vol. 68, no. 2, p. 103–117.
Robinson, J. (2002), “Global and world cities: A view from off the map”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 26, no. 3, p. 531–554.
Robinson, J. (2005), “Urban geography: World cities, or a world of cities”, Progress in Human Geography, vol. 29, no. 6, p. 757–765.
Robinson, J. (2006), Ordinary cities: Between modernity and development, Routledge, New York.
Roitman, S. and Recio, R. (2020), “Understanding Indonesia’s gated communities and their relationship with inequality”, Housing Studies, vol. 35, no. 5, p.795-819.
Rosen, G. and Grant, J. (2011), “Reproducing difference: gated communities in Canada and Israel”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 778–793.
Rosen, G. and Razin, E. (2008), “Enclosed residential neighborhoods in Israel: from landscapes of heritage and frontier enclaves to new gated communities”, Environment and Planning A, vol. 40, no. 12, p. 2895–2913.
Salim, Z. (2020), “Mapping gated communities: An empirical assessment of Wikimapia data quality”, International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, vol. 11, no. 3, p. 48-67.
Samers, M. (2002), “Immigration and the Global City Hypothesis: Towards an Alternative Research Agenda”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 389–402.
Sander, M. (2016), “Shanghai suburbia: Expatriate teenagers’ age-specific experiences of gated community living”, City, Culture, and Society, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 237–244.
Scheinbaum, D. (2010), “Gated communities in Mexico City: A historical perspective” in S. Bagaeen and O. Uduku (eds.), Gated communities: Social sustainability in contemporary and historical gated developments, Earthscan, London.
Scott, D. (2018), “Britain returns to the Indian Ocean?”, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, vol. 107, no. 3, p. 307–316.
Sheppard, E., Leitner, H. and Maringanti, A. (2013), “Provincializing global urbanism: A manifesto”, Urban Geography, vol. 34, no. 7, p. 893–900.
Sidaway, J. (2007), “Enclave space: A new metageography of development?”, Area, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 331–339.
Smith, B. (2010), “Scared by, of in, and for Dubai”, Social and Cultural Geography, vol. 11, no. 3, p. 263–283.
Tanulku, B. (2018), “The formation and perception of safety, danger, and insecurity inside gated communities: Two cases from Istanbul, Turkey”, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, vol. 33, no. 1, p. 151–173.
United Nations (2018), World urbanisation prospects: The 2018 revision, 9 May 2019, https://population.un.org/wup/.
Watters, J. and Biernacki, P. (1989), “Targeted sampling: Options for the study of hidden populations”, Social Problems, vol. 36, no. 4, p. 416–430.
Walsh, K. (2006), “‘Dad says I’m tied to a shooting star!’ Grounding (research on) British expatriate belonging”, Area, vol. 38, no. 3, p. 268–278.
Wilson-Doenges, G. (2000), “An exploration of sense of community and fear of crime in gated communities”, Environment and Behavior, vol. 32, no. 5, p. 597–611.
Wissink, B. and Hazelzet, A. (2016), “Bangkok living: Encountering others in a gated urban field”, Cities, vol. 59, p. 164–172.

This post has already been read 8609 times!

About journal

Title: Human Geographies - Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography
ISSN online: 2067-2284
ISSN print: 1843-6587
Imprint: University of Bucharest
Frequency: Biannual (May&November)
First volume: 1/2007
Current volume: 18/2024
Language: English
Indexed in: SCOPUS, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO (SocINDEX), ProQuest (Social Science Journals, SciTech Journals, Natural Science Journals), Index Copernicus, National Technical Information Service (NTiS), Bodleian Libraries, ExLibris SFX, DOAJ, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library, Google Scholar, Ulrich
Creative Commons License


EDITORS


Prof. dr. Liliana Dumitrache
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Daniela Dumbrăveanu
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Mariana Nae
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Gabriel Simion
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

SCImago Journal & Country Rank