www.ccp-online.org | CCP 1 (2007): 3-27

Organisation of Urban Space and Sustainable Development - Case of Upper-Class Gated Communities in Metro-Manila

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Dr. Kuvaja, Kristiina

Abstract: The aim of this study is to discuss how the organisation of urban space affects the conditions for social engagement and participation for sustainable development in large cities of the South. The specific focus of this work is on Metro-Manila, in the Philippines. The study focuses particularly on the emergence of exclusive gated communities which represent some of the most visible forms of spatial segregation in these cities. The central observation of this work is that this exclusiveness of the upper-classes’ daily life has an impact on the ways these inhabitants see their city’s development and its challenges. Closed gated communities also shape the ways the members of upper-class perceive themselves as participants in urban development.
On the basis of data collected among residents of two exclusive gated communities in Metro-Manila, the author argues that the enclaving of the upperclass as a response to urban decay represents a more fundamental societal condition than merely the elites’ obsession with security and their desire for social exclusion, as several international studies have claimed. In this study, the informants’ main narrative indicates that exclusive residential areas in Metro- Manila are a materialisation of the passivity and distrust with which the members of the upper-class view their own society, in addition to their security concerns. As such, the residents of gated communities remain ‘observers’ of their city's sustainable development without becoming actively involved in it. The article concludes that sustainable development policies should contain actions to engage the highly isolated upper-class in social interaction, mobility and negotiations. This is as important as the empowerment of the poor in achieving a socially sound foundation for sustainable development in the urban South.

Keywords: Sustainable Urban Development, Social Sustainability, spatial Segregation, Gated Communities, Metro-Manila

Contact:
Dr. Kristiina Kuvaja
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of Jyväskylä
Tarkk´ampujankatu 10 A 33
00150 Helsinki

E-Mail: eekrisku@cc.jyu.fi