New dimensions of social exclusion in Latin America: From gated communities to gated cities, the case of Santiago de Chile

Over the last 30 years, one can perceive growth towards sociospatial exclusion in Latin American cities with more than 80,000 inhabitants. Gated communities, hermetically sealed off from their surrounding neighbourhoods by walls and sophisticated security installations, have emerged in nearly all Latin American cities. It started with the closure of streets, went on with the construction of high-rise apartment blocks and resulted in gated neighbourhoods (“barrios cerrados”) of up to 150 or even 200 houses. The tendency towards social exclusiveness and inward orientation for family homes is to be seen as an element of Latin American tradition. Within such a perspective, the enclosures could have been taken for a cultural relic as well. However, over recent years, mega-projects have been launched that, due to their size of more than 300 ha and some 10,000 of inhabitants, can no longer be called “quarters” or “neighbourhoods” but must be understood as new towns. In Santiago de Chile the new trend resulted in the construction of private highways linking several exclusive quarters or cities, accessible not to the public but only to the citizens of these districts. This new development can only be interpreted as a result of globalisation and neoliberalism.