Crime Talk in the Suburbs: Symbolic Representations of Status and Security on a Master Planned Estate

Abstract

Master planned estates (MPEs) are marketed, sold and purchased on the basis of powerful symbols of security and aesthetics, as well as shared aspirations, values and lifestyle patterns. Living in an MPE not only represents a significant economic investment, but also provides residents with symbolic capital that comes with living in a new, secure, and high status community. Drawing on a case study of an MPE in Brisbane, Queensland, this paper examines the discursive strategies used by residents when the symbolic representation of their suburb is challenged by an ongoing problem of delinquency. By reviewing resident 'blogs' on community forums, it examines how the dissonance between the representation and the experience of the MPE is collectively managed, through the medium of talk, to rationalise and neutralise the problem.

Experiences of ‘Community’ in a Gated Residential Estate

“…Community involvement is clearly encouraged by some of the formal activities of the neighbourhood and the need for the residents to maintain neighbourhood infrastructure and protect their lifestyle and investment (both financial and personal) provides a context for, and space within which, social interaction occurs. The importance of organisational and management structures to community building processes bears similarity to the findings of Chesire and Wikes (), McGuirk and Dowling (), and Goodman and Douglas () and also Sanchez‐Jankowski () where they argue that community was formed through commonalities found in key neighbourhood organisations. The findings presented here from Macquarie Links extend these insights by noting the ways in which the private governance of a neighbourhood can act in a similar way to communal organisations in the process of community building.…”

“…Some of the more unexpected features of a neighbourhood or residential estate can have a much greater influence over the community building process, which is very much the case in Macquarie Links. This was also found in the work of Cheshire and Wickes (), who found an online community forum to be successful in mobilising the community.…”

“…Cheshire and Wickes () examined issues of insecurity within a new master planned estate in Queensland, Australia, uncovering a range of criminal incidents occurring within the neighbourhood that were undermining the ideal of community within the estate. Through the use of an online community forum, the residents ‘collectively engaged in discursive strategies that minimised the importance of the dissonant elements to re‐establish Lakeside as a desirable address’ (Cheshire and Wickes, , 1173). In this sense, community was mobilised through the online forum, and the forum was used to symbolically re‐establish the prestige of the estate.…”

Managing a marginalised identity in pro-anorexia and fat acceptance cybercommunities

“…In order to guide our own practice we drew on previous online research that has utilised online non-participant observation without the need to procure informed consent. These studies confirm that 'lurking' 3 is a valid and accepted practice in sociology (see Adler and Adler, 2008;Cheshire and Wickes, 2012;Fox et al, 2005;Giles and Brotsky, 2007). Mendelson (2003) argues that online non-participatory observation has negligible risk for the participants.…”

"Crime-Talk", Security and Fear in the Countryside: A Preliminary Study of a Rural Irish Town and Its Hinterland

“…Reserachers have analysed citizens' use of local blogs, webforums and social media for naturally occurring crimetalk. Cheshire and Wickes (2012) for example have drawn from the conversational analysis method, to identify strategies of rationalization and neutralization, where residents crafted a particular form of crime-talk, so as not to damage the prestigious reputations of their upmarket residences. Thus negative lived experiences can be strategically played down in talk to retain class distinctions.…”