Enclosed Residential Neighborhoods in Israel: From Landscapes of Heritage and Frontier Enclaves to New Gated Communities

Abstract

Contemporary studies of gated communities largely associate this phenomenon with global forces, emphasizing recent urban processes that operate across national borders. However, the Israeli experience demonstrates that multiple forces work simultaneously to produce various forms of enclosed residential communities that follow very different evolutionary routes. Older forms of gated spaces such as traditional and frontier enclaves, characterized by religious–cultural or ethno-national identities, coexist and evolve alongside newer forms of postwelfare-state market-driven enclaves also referred to as neoliberal enclaves. Although gated enclaves share some similar defining features, they differ significantly in reasons for enclosure, developmental mechanisms and gating effects. The diverse landscape of enclaves results from ongoing interactions of macrosocietal processes influenced by global trends, with place-specific institutional and cultural settings.