Human Territoriality in Gated Communities

Abstract

Home, a primary territory allows people to exert control over its space, and in turn the home dictates behaviors and attitudes of its inhabitants. This paper explores extended territory beyond home, which includes other homes in gated spaces. Gated spaces and its community are bounded by a wall with gates and has restricted throughfare traffic. These gated spaces provide vivid territorial physical markers which influences thinking of the community about an ‘extended home’. Two research sites were selected on the basis of size (large and small) and permeability (active and permeable) of throughfare. Photographs, field inspection, interactive participant observation, and semi-structured interviews were taken from residents at these two sites. The results suggested that residents viewed territorial physical markers as extension of their house and believed that these provided a physical safety net extending a sense of home.