Voluntary Segregation

After the colonial period, the city of Port-of-Spain continued to exhibited high levels of segregation.  The colonials and ex-enslaved continued to reside in separate niches.

In the twentieth century, like most of the contemporary world the processes of exclusion and segregation continue to strive. The processes of exclusion and segregation have been further bolstered in Port-of-Spain, with the advent of globalization. This can be seen in the trend towards gated communities by the urban elites and middle class.  These compounds represent a particular type of lifestyle, an elite identity a part of social different ion. (Erten 2013)  “Gated communities have become global commodities and cultural icons, which are readily consumed by the urban elite world-wide”  (Genis 2007)

Gated communities emerged in the US in the 1980’s, in an attempt to house the growing urban population.  By the twentieth century, these neighborhoods became popular as a contributor to inequality and differentiation.  This type of New Urbanism is underpinned by socio-economic polarization of a particular group. (Hall 2012):

The growing trend locally:

•           Elite communities, lifestyle of prestige and exclusion
•           Increased numbers cropping up in the inner city and outskirts
•           Attracts young professionals
•           Self- Contained
•           Increased security (guards, security intercoms and high walls)

Today, gated communities can be equated to designer labels.  Very costly and are increasing in popularity as time space compression speeds up the circulation of knowledge and trends.  [(Murray 2006) (Hall 2012)]   One can expected to see more and more communities like these in Trinidad as more individual seek this type of “voluntary segregation”.

Bibliography

Erten, Erdem. "Global Image Hegemony:Istanbul's Gated Communities as the New International Journal of Architectural Reasearch." Archnet-IJAR, Vol.7(2), 2013: 251.

Genis, Serife. "Producing Elite Localities: The rise of Gated Communties in Istanbul." Urban Studies: Sage , 2007: 771.

Hall, Tim and Heat Barrett. Urban Geography. London andNew York: Routledge, 2012.