New Trends and Socio-Spatial Relations in Gated Communities
Levent Taş, Esra Burcu SağlamThis study focuses on the socio-spatial relationship constructed in gated communities. Great urban transformation has been observed in the urban life during the second half of the 20th century. Transformation in this period changed urban space as well as the daily life and social relationships of city dwellers. Gated communities are a sign of both spatial transformation and change within the social relationships in cities. The first gated communities appeared as living spaces serving as an isolation for the elite class from lower classes of society and problems of the city. Research conducted on gated communities were often related to such issues as socio-spatial segregation. However, by building gated communities for the middle class, these communities became more visible in the urban view and began to influence urban life and social relationships more. Hence, the social-spatial relationship constructed in gated communities became more significant in terms of urban life. This research was designed according to qualitative research methods and the data for research was acquired from in-depth interviews. The data showed that besides community and society type relationships, networking type relationships, and fluid social relationship were constructed in gated communities. Based on the data, it was concluded that discussing relationships constructed in gated communities was insufficient within the frame of the community-society type relationships constructed in these communities and new research is needed on this subject.
Güvenlikli Sitelerde Yeni Eğilimler ve Sosyo-Mekânsal İlişkiler
Levent Taş, Esra Burcu SağlamBu çalışmanın konusu, güvenlikli sitelerde inşa edilen sosyo-mekânsal ilişkilerdir. 20. yüzyılın ikinci yarısı kentsel yaşamda büyük dönüşümlerin yaşandığı bir dönem olmuştur. Bu dönemde yaşanan dönüşümler kentsel mekânı dönüştürdüğü gibi kentlilerin gündelik yaşamını ve sosyal ilişkilerini de dönüştürme uğratmıştır. Güvenlikli siteler hem kentlerde yaşanan mekânsal dönüşümlerin hem de sosyal ilişkilerde yaşanan değişimlerin bir göstergesi niteliğindedir. İlk güvenlikli siteler elitlerin kendilerini alt sınıflarından ve kentin sorunlarından izole etmesini sağlayan yaşam alanlarıdır. Güvenlikli siteler üzerine yapılan araştırmalar genellikle sosyo-mekânsal ayrışma konusuna odaklanmıştır. Ancak güvenlikli sitelerin orta sınıflar için de üretilmesiyle, güvenlikli siteler hem kentsel manzarada daha görünür olmuş hem de kentsel yaşamı ve sosyal ilişkileri daha fazla etkilemeye başlamıştır. Bu durum güvenlikli sitelerde inşa edilen sosyomekânsal ilişkileri kentsel yaşam açısından daha da önemli hale getirmiştir. Araştırma nitel araştırma yöntemine göre tasarlanmış ve araştırmanın verileri derinlemesine görüşmelerle elde edilmiştir. Araştırmanın verileri güvenlikli sitelerde cemaat tipi ve cemiyet tipi sosyal ilişkilerin yanında ağ tipi ilişkilerin ve akışkan sosyal ilişkilerin de inşa edildiğini göstermektedir. Bu veriler ışığında güvenlikli sitelerde inşa edilen ilişkileri cemaat-cemiyet tipi ilişkiler çerçevesinde tartışmanın yetersiz olduğu ve bu konuda yeni araştırmalara ihtiyaç olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
Since the second half of the 20th century, the urban population has increased, and spatial transformations have been experienced in cities. This transformation can be explained by the impact of neoliberal policies on cities. The transformation in cities is also an indicator of a change in social relations and structure. In this study, the socio-spatial relationships built in gated communities emerging as a part of spatial transformation in cities was examined.
The first gated communities were built as living spaces for the elite. New trends have emerged along with the spread of gated communities. A majority of society yearns to become a homeowner in these living spaces. In parallel with this, the fact that investor firms build low-cost, low-quality sites for the middle classes has led to the spread of gated communities across all segments of society. This new trend is appraised as the middle-classification of gated communities. This middle classification of gated communities’ results in more and more urban residents’ preferring to live in gated communities every passing day. Gated community life has become influential by becoming almost the main residential form of urban life. Within this framework, this study focused on the socio-spatial relationships in gated communities that have become increasingly widespread in cities. In this research, the type of socio-spatial relations constructed in gated communities was scrutinized. The main problem with this type of research is what kind of lifestyle and what sort of social relations can be seen in gated communities. By focusing on socio-spatial relations constructed in gated communities, the research was aimed at explaining how these relations were built by the residents of the site. The aim was to describe socio-spatial relationships built in gated communities by evaluating how these relationships were interpreted by residents and to assess socio-spatial relations built in cities within this framework.
The research was based on a qualitative research method. Accordingly, the data of the research was obtained by way of in-depth interviews conducted with residents living in gated communities. In this research, 23 site residents of 10 different gated communities were interviewed in the neighborhoods of Çayyolu and Yaşamkent in the Çankaya district and Eryaman in the Yenimahalle district of Ankara, Turkey. Semi-structured questionnaires were employed in the interviews. In addition to in-depth interviews, the data obtained from document reviews and non-participant observations were also utilized in order to evaluate the phenomenon of the gated community by its different aspects. The data was encoded after the collected data was transcribed. While coding data, grounded theory was adopted as a data analysis strategy. According to this strategy, the data was first included in open, then axial, and finally a selective coding process. As a result of this coding process, themes of research were accessed and interpreted. The themes accessed in the research were evaluated under three categories; as space, social relations, and rules. In the analysis of data, the MAXQDA-11 program was used.
As a result, the themes reached in the research show that socio-spatial relations built in gated communities have similar characteristics to community and society-type relations as well as network relations and that fluid socio-spatial relations are built dependent on time-space compression. In this context, it can be said that socio-spatial relations built in gated communities reveal a mixed relationship system or indicate a new form of socio-spatial relationship.