Gating as exclusionary commoning in a post-socialist city

Abstract

New-build gated condominiums at the periphery of a post-socialist city are a well-studiedphenomenon. However, in Poland, recent years have seen an expansion of residential gating into oldinner-city neighbourhoods and socialist large housing estates. The resulting fragmentation andprivatisation of public space have raised much controversy and debate on appropriation of urbancommon good. This paper presents outcomes of a research on the changing discourse of gating inGdańsk, based on a discourse analysis of newspaper articles and interviews with key urbanstakeholders. On the one hand, gating is seen as an anti-commoning practice criticised for its elitistcharacter and undesirable socio-spatial consequences. On the other, a narrative of exclusionarycommons has emerged to justify the need of gating in specific cases. Considering the varyingmotivations and types of gating in different urban areas, the authors have attempted a classification,relating gating practices to commoning strategies and their justification in localities typicallycharacterised by atomistic individualism and social disintegration.