The authors focus on societal perceptions of the Polish post-communist transformation as reflected in the rising discourse of gated communities. Guarded, (video-) controlled and/or walled housing estates have been on the sprawl in the Polish metropolises throughout the 1990s and 2000s. However, only recently they have been discursively constructed—under the banner of “gated communities”—as a social and political issue in the country. The authors look at this issue from a vantage point offered by Laclau and Mouffe's theory of discourse, which allows the authors to combine a spatial and a linguistic analytical perspective. The analysis emphasizes the manner in which societal perceptions of borders surrounding gated communities overlap with perceptions of boundaries being inscribed in the social structure of post-communist Poland, while the resulting socio—spatial configurations are taken to signify political cleavages inherent in the Polish nation.
Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces," retrieved 2 February 2007, from http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/.
2.
Edward Soja, Postmetropolis. Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (Malden: Blackwell, 2000); David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
3.
Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage, 1992).
4.
Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles ( New York: Vintage, 1999).
5.
Georg Glasze et al., "Introduction: Global and Local Perspectives on the Rise of Private Neighbourhoods," in Private Cities. Global and Local Perspectives, eds. Georg Glasze et al. (London, New York: Routledge & Francis Taylor, 2006): 1-8.
6.
Dariusz Bartoszewicz, "Berlińczyk bada warszawskie osiedla zamknięte," Gazeta Wyborcza 2004, retrieved 10 December 2006, from http://miasta.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,34862,2370444.html; Dariusz Bartoszewicz et al. "Zamknięte osiedla, czyli getta dla bogatych," Gazeta Wyborcza 2005, retrieved 10 December 2006, from http://www.gazetawyborcza.pl/1,75248,2785902.html; Mariusz Czubaj, "Polska płotem podzielona," Polityka 30, 30 July 2005: 4-20.
7.
A "Warsaw" issue of Studia Regionalne i Lokalne 4, no. 26 (2006); Katarzyna Zaborska, "Osiedla za murem-bezpieczne domy szczęśliwych ludzi? (zaproszenie na wykład)," PR News 26 (April 2006), retrieved 8 January 2006, from http://www.tf.pl/view.php?art=24914.
8.
Krystyna Kłosek-Kozłowska, "Miasto enklaw strzeżonych," n.d., retrieved 10 December 2006, from http://www.urbanista.pl/arch/5705.php; Krzysztof Nawratek, "Wspólnota pogardy. A może strzeżone osiedla nie są takie złe?" retrieved 10 December 2006, from architekci.pl/architektura/index.php?id_ dzialu=77&id_fragment=2207&od=0.
9.
The contributions in theme issues of Environment and Planning B, 2002 B, 29, no. 3; Geographica Helvetica 58, no. 4 (2003); and Housing Studies 20, no. 2 (2005).
10.
Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1989). It might be surmised that the public opinion represented by the Polish Internet users is roughly equivalent to the new middle class because of relatively high prices for the Internet provision and its concentration in big cities-cf. Jonak Łukasz et. al., Re: internet - społeczne aspekty medium. Polskie konteksty i interpretacje (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne, 2006). Notably, the amount and "quality" of vulgarities appearing in the utterances are rather striking and should become an object of a separate analysis.
11.
Dariusz Bartoszewicz, "Alterglobaliści zamykają grodzone osiedla," Gazeta Wyborcza, 2006, retrieved 8 January 2007, from http://miasta.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,34862,3614453.html; "Warszawa: Anarchiści przeciw strzeżonym osiedlom," retrieved 8 January 2007, from http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/ 2006/09/23055.shtml.
12.
Although the categories of social/public/private space are not discussed in detail in the article, it needs to be noticed that they loom at the background of the discursive battles over gated communities in Poland just as elsewhere (cf. Glasze et al., Private Cities). In the Polish case there is, however, some additional ambiguity and tension inscribed in the issue that stem from the still collectively remembered quasi-communitarian use of the term "social" as opposed to both "public" (meaning state) and "private" during the state socialist period.
13.
Zygmunt Bauman, Globalizacja i co z tego dla ludzi wynika (Warszawa: PIW, 2000); David Newman, "Borders and Bordering: Towards an Interdisciplinary Dialogue," European Journal of Social Theory 9, no. 2, (May 2006): 171-186.
14.
Manuel Castells, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture: Vol. I The Rise of the Network Society; Vol. II The Power of Identity; Vol. III The End of Millennium (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000); John Urry, "Sociology of Time and Space," in The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Second Edition, ed. Bryan S. Turner (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000).
15.
Derek Gregory, Geographical Imaginations (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1994); Carraig O'Thuathail, Critical Geopolitics. The Politics of Writing Global Space (Minneapolis: Borderlines 6, 1996); Sebastian Lentz, "More Gates, Less Community," in Private Cities. Global and Local Perspectives, eds. Georg Glasze et al. (London, New York: Routledge& Francis Taylor, 2006): 209.
16.
James Q. Wilson et al., "Broken Windows. The Police and Neighbourhood Safety," The Atlantic Monthly 249, no. 3 (1982): 29-38; Krzysztof Nawratek, Ideologie w przestrzeni. Próby demistyfikacji (Kraków: Universitas, 2005).
17.
Ernesto Laclau et al., Hegemony and the Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London: Verso, 1985).
18.
Georg Glasze et al. Diskurs-Stadt-Kriminalitat. Stadtische (Un-)Sicherheiten aus der Perspektive von Stadtforschung und Kriminalgeographie (Bielefeld:[transcript] Verlag, 2005), 44; cf. also Anna Gąsior-Niemiec, (New) Regionalism in Poland: Europeanization and Myth-making (unpublished PhD dissertation, submitted at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, 2003: ch. IV and V).
19.
David Howarth, Discourse (Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2000); Laclau et al., Hegemony; Philips et al., Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method (London, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002); Jacob Torfing, "Discourse Theory: Achievements, Arguments, and Challenges," in Discourse Theory in European Politics. Identity, Policy and Governance, eds. David Howarth et al. (London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2004): 1-31.
20.
Glasze et al. Diskurs, 41.
21.
Torfing, "Discourse Theory," 9.
22.
Glasze et al. Diskurs, 44.
23.
Ernesto Laclau, "Dyskurs," in Przewodnik po współczesnej filozofii politycznej , eds. Robert E. Goodin et al. (Warszawa: Ksiązka i Wiedza, 2002): 555.
Howarth, Discourse, 106-107; Annika Mattissek, "Diskursive Konstitution von Sicherheit im öffentlichen Raum am Beispiel Frankfurt am Main," in Glasze et. al, Diskurs, 105-136; Philips et al., Discourse Analysis, 42-43.
26.
Georg Glasze, "Die Diskurstheorie nach Laclau und Mouffe," (a chapter from a habilitation dissertation submitted at the Department of Geography, University of Mainz, 2008).
27.
Georg Glasze et al., "Sprachorientierte Forschungsansätze in der Humangeographie nach dem linguistic turn," Geographische Zeitschrift (2008, forthcoming).
28.
Howarth, Discourse, 105-109; Laclau et al., Hegemony, 115; Mattissek, "Diskursive Konstitution," 117-130; Philips et al., Discourse Analysis, 40-43.
Torfing, "Discourse Theory," 16; David Howarth, "Applying Discourse Theory: The Method of Articulation," in Howarth et al., Discourse Theory, 316-349.
31.
Torfing, "Discourse Theory," 15; Philips et al., Discourse Analysis, 38-40.
32.
Philips et al., Discourse Analysis, 46; cf. also Newman, "Borders," 176-177.
33.
Czubaj, "Polska płotem," Bohdan Jałowiecki, "Czy Warszawa staje się miastem Trzeciego Świata?" Studia Regionalne i Lokalne 4, 26 (2006): 48-60; Bohdan Jałowiecki et al., "Klasa metropolitalna w przestrzeni Warszawy," in Społeczna mapa Warszawy. Interdyscyplinarne studium metropolii warszawskiej, eds. Janusz Grzelak et al. (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2004): 132-146; Henrik Werth, "Transformation zur geschlossenen Stadt? Geschlossene Wohnkomplexe in Polens Hauptstadt Warschau," Europa Regional 13, no. 4 (2005): 155-161. A paper by Anna Gąsior-Niemiec et al., "Grodzenie miasta - casus Warszawy," Studia Regionalne i Lokalne 4, no. 30 (2007): 5-30 contains a thorough presentation and discussion of the types of gated communities found in Warsaw, while for instance Marta Dymnicka, "Osiedla za bramą a ciągłość kulturowa i społeczna w kształtowaniu przestrzeni miejskiej," in Gettoizacja polskiej przestrzeni miejskiej, eds. Bohdan Jałowiecki et al. (Warszawa: Academica Wydawnictwo SWPS, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2007): 53-72; and Maria Lewicka et al. "Osiedla zamknięte-czy istnieje alternatywa?" Kolokwia Psychologiczne, 16 (2007): 135-152 offer succinct overviews of typologies found in scientific literature on the subject.
34.
Lewicka et al., "Osiedla zamknięte."
35.
Jałowiecki et al., "Klasa metropolitalna," 133-138; Lewicka et al., "Osiedla zamknięte"; cf. a Russian case study in Lentz, "More Gates," 206-209.
36.
Krystyna Iglicka et al., "Cudzoziemscy specjaliści w aglomeracji warszawskiej," In Społeczna mapa Warszawy, eds. J. Grzelak et al., 368-388; cf. also Lentz, "More Gates," 209-210, 215.
37.
A topographic map of Warsaw by Werth, showing the spatial distribution of gated communities as of 2004 is available at http://eela1.blox.pl/html/1310721,262146,14,15.html?10,2004; see also a topographic map of Warsaw's district of Ursynów in Gąsior-Niemiec et al., "Grodzenie miasta," 23.
38.
The Varsovian "Marina Mokotów" housing estate is the most known/infamous of such large gated housing estates, stretching over thirty-four hectares in the middle of the centrally located district of Mokotów.
39.
Bohdan Jałowiecki, "Fragmentacja i prywatyzacja przestrzeni," in Jałowiecki et al. Gettoizacja, 22; cf. also Bartoszewicz, "Berlińczyk bada"; Georg Glasze et al., "Varsovie - Logement sécurisé: un marché en hausse," Urbanisme 337 (2004): 61-63; Czubaj, "Polska płotem"; Gąsior-Niemiec et al., "Grodzenie miasta"; Bohdan Jałowiecki, "Czy Warszawa staje się"; Tatiana Klonowicz et al., "Warszawiaków powody do szczęścia," in Grzelak et al., Społeczna mapa Warszawy, 63-82.
40.
The use of the term "class" is in the article divorced from the classical Marxist connotations. Rather, it follows Laclau and Mouffe's reinterpretation of the concept as discussed in Mattissek, "Diskursive Konstitution," 115-116. Moreover, our use of the term "housing classes" is only vaguely related to the original concept by John Rex as discussed for example in John Rex et al., Race, Community and Conflict (London: Oxford University Press, 1967).
41.
Cichomski, " Zróżnicowania społeczne mieszkańców Warszawy w perspektywie porównawczej," in Grzelak et al., Społeczna mapa Warszawy, 11-27.
42.
Jacek Fenderson quoted in Bartoszewicz, "Alterglobaliści zamykają."
43.
In the parentheses following quotations, nicknames used by an Internet forum discussants are provided. The quotations are taken from exchanges registered at an Internet forum affiliated at Gazeta Wyborcza that were retrieved 10 April 2007, from http://szukaj.gazeta.pl/szukaj/0,52000 .html?slowo=grodzenie. The following exchanges were analysed in detail: "Rajskie życie w tzw. apartamentowcach"; "A oto efekty mieszkania w aparatmentowcu"; "Totalny bezsens"; "życie w tzw. apartamentowcach"; "Ja jestem przeciw grodzonym osiedlom, ale . . ."; "A dlaczego miasto wygląda jak kołchoz???"; "Alterglobaliści zamykają grodzone osiedla"; "Typowa wiejska mentalność . . . "; "Zawsze dozorcy zamykali na noc bramę!"; "Lewacy! Tacy jesteście <<tolerancyjni>>?"; "Grodzone osiedla - policzek dla etosu Solidarności"; "Grodzone osiedla - getta klasy średniej"; "Kontrola na bramce"; "Ja jestem uczulony na zapach moczu"; "Motłoch zazdrości." A full database of the analyzed exchanges is available from the authors of this article.
44.
Terms in italics, put in parentheses within the quotations, are those Polish vernacular (usually extremely derogative) expressions that have no exact equivalent in English.
45.
Notably, such collective images are further reinforced in social science literature: cf. Jałowiecki, "Fragmentacja"; Jałowiecki et al. "Klasa metropolitalna."
46.
Gąsior-Niemiec et al., "Grodzenie miasta."
47.
Davis, City of Quartz.
48.
"Warszawa: Anarchiści"; cf. Klonowicz et al., "Warszawiaków powody," 74-77; Nawratek, Ideologie w przestrzeni, 155-167.
49.
Elinor Ostrom , Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
50.
"Stare bloki kontra nowe grodzone osiedle," retrieved 10 December 2006 from www.neww.org.pl/pl.php/news/news/1.html?&nw=2719&re=1 .
51.
Ibid. Italics added by authors.
52.
Ibid. Italics added by authors.
53.
A Russian case study by Lentz, "More Gates."
54.
Harvey, A Brief History.
55.
"Andrzej Walicki w rozmowie z Krytyką Polityczną: Społeczeństwo bez mózgu i sumienia?" Krytyka Polityczna, no. 1 (Summer 2002): 57-83.
56.
Ewa Thompson, "W kolejce po aprobatę. Kolonialna mentalność polskich elit," Europa Tygodnik Idei (Dziennik) 180, no. 37 (16 September 2007): 8-9.
57.
Artur Domosławski , "Globalizacja i kontestacja," in Globalizacja i co dalej?, ed. Stefan Amsterdamski (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN, 2004): 71-84.
58.
Italics added by authors.
59.
Italics added by authors.
60.
Italics added by authors.
61.
Newman, "Borders," 176.
62.
Italics added by authors.
63.
The use of the communist meta-discourse exemplified by contemporary China betrays, of course, both ignorance and ideological ardour on part of aga.
64.
The term block hooligans is used as a rough English equivalent of the Polish vernacular blokersi referring to dislodged youth from pathological families typically inhabiting some of the poorer, working class post-state-socialist neighborhoods.
65.
Italics added by authors.
66.
Italics added by authors.
67.
Torfing, "Discourse Theory," 15.
68.
That is, they gathered to build a wall around their housing estate.
