Beyond the Walls

In the past 30 years, globalizing cities have experienced a new spatial order characterized by fragmentation. Areas within the cities have become more segregated and independent from each other. An indicator of the fragmentation is the proliferation of gated communities. Over the past two decades, Latin American cities have experienced the proliferation of gated communities throughout the metropolitan region and not only concentrated in prestigious areas of major cities. This study consists of a comparative analysis of three types of gated communities in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, Brazil. The findings demonstrate that all three gated communities have similar components; however, differences in size, quantity and sophistication of components make the large suburban gated community a special case. Although the literature on gated communities in Brazil focuses on fear of crime as the major motivation for gating, this study shows that the emergence of large suburban gated communities is motivated by something else: the search for a different lifestyle characterized by isolation.