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Gated communities became an 'object of study' in the 1990s as social scientists observed their growth in several cities; they are now a feature of the urban landscape in most cities around the world. The expansion of gated communities has led to prolific research, examining different aspects of this type of residential development and providing evidence from case studies worldwide. This paper reviews how gated communities are conceptualised according to the literature and identifies the main factors influencing their development. It also considers spatial, economic, political and social consequences of the development of gated communities. These elements should be taken into account by planners and policymakers to minimise their negative impacts and maximise the positive consequences of a residential option that is likely to be part of the urban landscape for a long time.

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Labor markets are still heavily gendered everywhere, even when women's participation in the labor market is greater now than at any other time in history. Existing research shows poor women's participation in the informal economy is higher than men's in many parts of the Global South. However, this is not the case in Bangladesh. Poor Muslim women's participation, particularly where they require access to public space, is lower than men due to persistent patriarchal norms, reflected in social and religious expectations of women. Drawing on interview data with female street vendors from a slum in Dhaka, this article explores the dynamics of social and religious norms that constrain poor Muslim women's access to public space to earn income. This article contributes to the literature on gender, religion, and work by highlighting that the parochial realm offers a safer space for operating businesses without breaking social norms and by arguing that poor Muslim women experience social and religious barriers rather than legal ones. Non‐legal barriers are more amenable to change as a result, which is important for empowering women.

Pilar is a city located in the third ring of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region (Argentina). Over the past 30 years, the widespread development of gated residential communities has seemingly gone hand-in-hand with an urbanisation of this outer suburb signalled by the arrival of new populations, enterprise, retail and other services. The growth of the 'private city' of these gated communities therefore has important implications for the 'public city' of the wider suburban municipality. Drawing upon original research based on the opinions of key informants, this paper considers how the growth of the 'private city' has contributed to the economy of, processes of community-building and social cohesion in Pilar. In conclusion, it is suggested that gated residential communities have been a major factor in the emergence of the dual suburb that is Pilar today. entrance to a new private university-at locations just off the Panamericana highway that passes through the municipality. At a spot near a new shopping centre several kilometres short of the historical centre of Pilar, the driver advises us-the only remaining passengersthat we have to make the rest of our journey by taxi!

El presente artículo se basa en la presentación realizada por la autora en la apertura del Seminario Internacional sobre Encerramiento Residencial, organizado por la Escuela de Trabajo Social y Desarrollo Humano de la Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia) los días 13 y 14 de octubre de 2015.

The presence of street vending in the urban global South indicates a vibrant economy that is often tagged as informal. When situated in the larger contexts, it persists in an atmosphere of poverty and inequality. Amid the social conditions that produce economic vulnerability, how do state institutions regulate urban informal vending? What policies do they enforce to manage the insecurity, resilience and resistance of street vendors? What are the emerging patterns from these regulations? This paper presents and analyzes a set of policy epistemologies based on state rules on informal vending in selected global South cities. Building on the structuration theory, the paper draws from secondary data and demonstrates that understanding policy orientations in urban informality requires looking into the structure-agency interaction. It points out the theoretical and empirical implications of this approach to urban studies and planning research. It proffers a post-dualist lens in examining rules, relations, and interests in urban informality.

The paper examines gated communities as an object of study that has received intense scholarly attention from diverse disciplines over the last 10 years. The many conference presentations and published papers on the subject have not, however, always contributed to a cohesive body of knowledge. We suggest in this paper that clearer frameworks for empirical investigations are needed; not only for specific disciplines, but also for providing an interdisciplinary perspective. The paper focuses on methodology: first highlighting three different approaches to the analysis of urban fragmentation (social, spatial and institutional); and second, outlining a framework for interdisciplinary analysis. In the latter part, we illustrate the connections that may be made between the analyses of the social, spatial and institutional fragmentation effects and causes of gated communities and suggest ways of handling phenomenological as well as linguistic complexity in this multi-disciplinary area of urban scholarship.