Walled Without Gates: Gated Communities in Shanghai

Abstract

Housing reforms in China have popularized a new type of settlement that is often constructed in the form of gated communities. This study reports on a survey in Shanghai revealing that most neighborhoods are only semi-enclosed and not technically gated. It was also discovered that gatedness enhances residents' perception of security, but does not contribute significantly to their sense of community. This latter finding may be a result of two competing processes—the retreat of middle-class households to private spaces in order to escape the control of the state versus the escalated efforts of the state to regain control at the neighborhood level by enhancing local sense of identity. Hence, interpreting the social construction of gated communities has to be undertaken with care, taking into account the local production and meaning of gated communities in the distinctive context of post-reform China.