Governing Enclosure: The Role of Governance in Producing Gated Communities and Guarded Neighborhoods in Malaysia

Abstract

Enclosed residential areas are proliferating in Malaysian cities, in common with many other parts of the world. The production of gated communities and guarded neighborhoods in Malaysia reveals the active role of the state in creating conditions that support enclosure and securitization of space. This article examines the role of governance in producing residential enclaves that reinforce segregation and fragment urban landscapes. Based on a study of gated communities in Malaysia, we argue that governments, corporations and citizen groups collaborate within a complex governance system that (re)produces enclosure. Neoliberal market principles fuse with ethnic politics, cultural predilections and economic imperatives to generate a socially and spatially fragmented urban landscape where security concerns dominate and where citizens culturally, physically and symbolically segregate themselves from others. Environment,

The variegated role of the state in different gated neighbourhoods in China

“…Moreover, the emergence of gated communities is more a response to conflicting socio-political conditions than a result of neoliberal social and spatial transformations. Gated communities are produced to prevent urban crime and violence in Latin American cities (Coy and Pöhler, 2002), and to avoid ethnic and political conflicts, as studies from Malaysia (Tedong et al, 2015), South Africa (Morange et al, 2012) and Israel (Rosen and Razin, 2009) indicate. Additionally, the burgeoning literature based on Asian countries has tended to see the development of contemporary gated communities as a way of modernising urban space, as, for instance, in Vietnam where it is part of urban mega-project development (Labbé and Boudreau, 2015).…”

Residential Enclosure, Power and Relationality: Rethinking Sociopolitical Relations in Southeast Asian Cities

“…Researchers now agree that enclosed residential estates in urban areas are not simply evidence of urban fragmentation or of a 'secession' by betteroff socioeconomic groups. Such urban spaces imply different relations between urban stakeholders and municipal authorities, and between the state and city dwellers--relations that very much depend on 'local governance frameworks ' (le Goix and Web ster, 2008;Tedong, et al, 2015). From this perspective, the increasing number of enclosed residential estates--whether gated or not, whether forming a 'community' or not--does not necessarily mean that residential segregation or fragmentation causes a rift between these estates and the city.…”

Gating and conflicting rationalities: challenges in practice and theoretical implications

“…Case studies offers a way to identify the interactive processes between state and other actors that together create conditions that allows particular urban forms such as guarded neighbourhoods to emerge (Tedong et al 2014a). Watson (2003) also calls for a case study approach to understand the context-specific rationalities operating in particular local contexts and the interactions between various stakeholders.…”

“…This sometimes takes place within a context of limited or no legal support (Tedong et al 20014b). Yet planners are pressurised by the demand from residents and politicians to approve enclosure applications, for example in Malaysia (Tedong et al 2014a). Similarly, in Canada, despite a disjunction between professional values and the local culture, planners are often pressurised by residents and politicians to approve gated communities (Grant 2005a).…”