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Since the mid-1970s, gated housing areas of the privileged have been spreading in Latin American cities. They have to be seen as a visible consequence of the deepening social disparities within Latin American societies and the resulting fragmentation of urban space. Condomínios fechados (Brazil) or barrios cerrados (Argentina) can be typified following different criteria, such as formation, location, size, fittings, construction typology, as well as social structure. Three groups of actors influence the process of their expansion: the real estate companies, for which the new form of living offers an attractive market segment, the target groups, whose increasing expectations regarding security and living comfort need to be met, and the public authorities, who have to find adequate responses concerning the further orientation of urban development. Based on case studies from Brazil, the paper will discuss the different phases of gated community expansion and the reasons why this is happening. Their internal structure and differentiation, as well as consequences for sociospatial development and urban planning will also be dealt with.

Within recent years, the expansion of gated communities has become an increasingly important element in the changing Latin American megacities and their suburban areas. In this paper, the internal structure and differentiation as well as sociospatial consequences of gated communities will be discussed, based on case studies from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires. The increasing fortification of the privileged is a visible consequence of the continuing intensification of social disparities and spatial fragmentation. Gated communities in Latin American cities which are generally planned as a whole by project developers and designed with sophisticated security measures, can be classified according to their location into innercity and suburban types. They represent an especially dynamic real estate product with a high return of capital. Public control has, by far, less relevance than private interests. Therefore, gated communities can be seen as ‘new extraterritorial spaces’. Within recent years, particularly, large edge-city-like projects have emerged in suburban areas. The success of gated communities can mainly be accounted for by the fear of crime. In this sense, they respond to social conflict and violence in the everyday life of the cities. At the same time, they are an expression of the increasingly diverging lifestyles of urban society under the influence of globalisation. With gated communities, new islands of wealth emerge in the ocean of poverty, which characterise the increasingly fragmented structure of the Latin American city.

A Amazônia evoca para si, como nenhuma outra região, o mito de terra livre, riquezas minerais e recursos energéticos supostamente inesgotáveis. Recordes anuais na colheita de soja e prognósticos otimistas sobre a produção e exportação para os mercados internacionais refletem a imagem de sucesso do Mato Grosso. Até hoje, muitos migrantes são atraídos em busca dessa quimera. Esta mudança regional e os conflitos dela resultantes tiveram início nos anos 60, a partir do estabelecimento de uma dinâmica liderada pelo Estado militar (1964-1985), empenhado em ocupar, desmatar e assim valorizar a terra no sentido teórico da modernização.

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Abstract. Seit Mitte der 1970er Jahre verbreiten sich in den brasilianischen Städten abgeschottete Wohnviertel der Privilegierten. Diese sogenannten condomínios fechados lassen sich nach unterschiedlichen Kriterien (Genese. Lage, Größe, Ausstattung, Bautypologie sowie Sozialstruktur) typisieren. Drei Akteursgruppen nehmen Einfluss auf ihre Verbreitung: Die Immobilienfirmen, denen sich mit der neuen Wohnform ein attraktives Marktsegment bietet, die Zielgruppen, für die insbesondere ein gesteigertes Sicherheitsbedürfnis und steigende Ansprüche an den Wohnkomfort ausschlaggebend sind, und die öffentliche Hand, für die die condomínios eine neue Herausforderung bei der Steuerung der Stadtentwicklung darstellen. Am Beispiel von Barra da Tijuca, dem neuesten Privilegiertenviertel von Rio de Janeiro, werden Ausbreitung, funktionale Differenzierung, interne Organisation sowie neuere Erscheinungsformen der condomínios fechados behandelt. Des weiteren wird die kleinräumige Nachbarschaft zu den Marginalvierteln der Favelas aufgezeigt. Die Ausbreitung der condomínios fechados während der letzten Jahre ist insgesamt die sichtbare Konsequenz der sich vertiefenden sozialen Disparitäten in der brasilianischen Gesellschaft und der damit verbundenen Fragmentierung der brasilianischen Stadt.

Zusammenfassung: Der globale Boom der commodities hatte einen fundamentalen Einfluss auf die Wirtschaft vieler lateinamerikanischer Länder hin zur Reprimarisierung. Nach einer neoliberalen Phase der Öffnung in den 1990er Jahren, die stark durch den Washington Consensus geprägt sind, bringen die 2000er Jahre einen komplexeren politischen, sozialen und ökonomischen Kontext mit sich. Neo-extraktivistische Praktiken und post-extraktivistische Diskurse werden en vogue. Dieser Beitrag legt diese Veränderungen offen und kontextualisiert sie. Dabei wird die theoretische Diskussion mit zentralen Beispielen aus dem Bergbau, der Sojaproduktion und Infrastrukturprojekten in Südamerika aufgearbeitet. Abstract:The global commodity boom has had a major impact on many South American economies and their tendencies towards reprimarisation. After a phase of neoliberal opening of the 1990s influenced by the Washington Consensus, the 2000s have brought a more complex political, social and economic context; neo-extractivist practices and post-extractivist discourses become en vogue. This paper unearths and contextualizes those changes and highlights the theoretical discussion with major examples of mining, soy production and infrastructure projects in South America.

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