The emergence of gated communities in post-communist urban context: and the reasons for their increasing popularity

This article considers the emergence of gated communities in the post-communist urban context and discusses the reasons for their increasing numbers and popularity. Narrowing in on a Polish city, the description focuses on the forms that gated communities take and on who the residents are, as well as their motives for moving into gated housing. Other explanations for the emergence of gated communities are reviewed. Interviews with residents of gated communities, a questionnaire, and previous studies on the topic form the basis of the material used in the study. It is argued that the motives for moving to gated communities are tightly intertwined with the communist past. While Polish gated communities are obviously an effect of the spatial planning and the housing market at the national and local level, they are also emerging in reaction to the housing conditions prevailing under communism.