Bagaeen, S. and O. Uduku, Eds. (2010). Gated communities: social sustainability in contemporary and historical gated developments. London, Earthscan.
This edited book contests the history and meaning of gated communities and argues for a deeper thinking of gated communities. In the foreword, Saskia Sassen argues that the concept of gated communities has become fixed and narrow, and that it could usefully be extended-- for example, 'the poor also need protected spaces' (p. xii). The book is very diverse both conceptually and empirically, with wide-ranging case studies of gated communities from: the Middle East (Bagaeen), China (Tomba), Nigeria (Uduku), South Africa (Landman), Argentina (Roitman and Giglio), Mexico (Sheinbaum), France (Le Goix and Callen) and New Zealand (Dupuis and Dixon). The chapters demonstrate many diverse forms of 'gating', in terms of different communities, local contexts, social struggles, and political and territorial processes of self-segregation, exclusion and territorialisation. Salcedo and Torres* also challenge dominant negative definitions of gated communities through the counter-example of a more benevolent form of gated community in Santiago.