Outside Society? The social implications of gated and secured neighbourhoods in Australia

Within and beyond Australia’s urban centres a complex archipelago of target-hardened, walled and otherwise secured neighbourhoods and individual homes has risen. In place of traditionally ‘porous’ suburbs and domestic environments has occurred a tendentious move by some to a built environment that holds implications for patterns of sociability, social networks and mobility. These spatial configurations suggest the rise of community forms preoccupied with social privatism and the withdrawal of affluent households from the institutional and social network flows of cities. We examine national survey data to enumerate the extent of gating and physical security measures in Australian neighbourhoods. We consider the relevance of our findings for those interested in the connections between these spatial configurations and their likely cultural and social impacts.