Bases sociales del encerramiento residencial. Individualismo y simplificación del medio social en las urbanizaciones cerradas del área metropolitana de Murcia

Resumen

Gated communities are an international phenomenon that has been developing from the mid-20th century. They are the object of study due to their territorial, urban and social implications. The main features of these residential developments are: the prevalence of single-family houses; physical closure within walls, fences, and security systems, and social homogeneity. The target of this research focuses on factors driving the development of gated communities –which are considered as a way of simplifying the social environment–, taking into consideration their main features and, above all, the sociability built into them. The research method is qualitative, although statistical sources have also been referred to in order to place this phenomenon in the specific location of Murcia’s metropolitan area, which consists of ten municipalities. The core of this research is constituted of comprehensive interviews with 71 residents in gated communities, with 12 mayors and ex–mayors, and with three owners of a real estate agency. In the gated communities located in Murcia’s metropolitan area, a social structure of upper middle class has developed. This structure is different (simpler and a higher socio-economic level) than the one from the municipalities to which they belong. The atmosphere on their streets and squares is muted and their sociability can be read as a reduction of that which is typically urban, and far removed from the community life characteristic of towns and small cities. The factors that have driven, facilitated and built this setting include, but are not limited to, the (relative) strength of the real estate sector and the financial system, as well as the omission of public institutions that do not get involved (either because of principles or lack of ability). However, a general flight from public insecurity that pushes people to take refuge in gated communities or the peremptory desire to obtain private services due to the absence or collapse of public services is ruled out. The political and economic structures therefore offer incentives for residential closure in a private sphere, albeit limited, in the face of the attraction of the city that is still alive. In Murcia’s metropolitan area, the city and the capital in particular keep the appeal of numerosity, diversity and complexity that result in several possibilities for personal development and a wide range of public and private services, leisure and culture. However, the city maintains, above all, a social complexity that –as Bauman explains– requires interaction between strangers and the acceptance of the difficulties of building relationships with those who contemplate the world differently, as well as the need to negotiate a shared cohabitation with them. Faced with the appeals and demands of the city and with the drive of financial, political and social factors, the social shape typical of modern society is found in the reason for the success of gated communities: individualism oriented towards an intimate life that results in an obvious uniform trend. This trend is opposed to the complexity in which a city forms its difficulties and threats, as well as its creative potential. By contrast, it encourages a retreat to a simplified social environment, a suitable and fitted family home to enjoy an intimate life, while outside the environment is reduced to a minimum and the trend towards social closure continues to grow.