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Introduction
Among academics, there is widespread acknowledgement that gated communities are a global phenomenon. Commonly defined as 'residential areas with restrictive entrances in which, normally, public spaces have been privatized' (Blakely and Snyder, 1999, p. 2), this type of housing developments constitutes part of the contemporary urban landscape of many cities around the globe and Mexico is no exception. The walls and fences, which characterized the physical dimension of gated communities, are more than ever present in the capital of this country. In wealthy and poor neighbourhoods, in the city and the suburbs, they are a prominent feature of what has been called a 'security-obsessed' urbanism (Peyroux, 2004).
The literature on the subject shows that gated projects have received increasing attention from different disciplines. Anthropologist and sociologist, using oral testimonials have examined the motivations, fears, desires and expectations that lie behind the decision to live in private enclaves (Svampa, 2001; Low, 2004; Giglia, 2002). Other scholars have concentrated on gated communities' governance and legal aspects trying to understand the implications of the private provision of traditionally public goods and services (McKenzie, 1994; Chen and Webster, 2006) Furthermore, some have explored the effects that enclosing neighbourhoods have had on property values and many others have examined their impact on social dynamics such as integration and exclusion (Perfiles Latinoamericanos, 2001; Sabatini et al. , 2001).1
In any case, most scholars agree that 'enclosed communities are by no means new, nor are they the product of universal principles or circumstances' (Grant and Rosen, 2007). On the contrary, their characteristics and implications on space and society differ accordingly to historical and cultural contexts.
Analysing gated communities from an historical perspective allows us to 'move beyond a focus of understanding basic causal relationships to understanding patterns and ultimately principles' (Landman, 2004). Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to surpass the case study and to offer a broader perspective on the development of different forms of voluntary segregation in Mexico City. Although the proliferation of gated communities is typically linked to the transformations that took place after the implementation of neo-liberal policies in the 1980s, the history of the city suggests that fortified enclaves for the affluent classes have existed ever since the first colonial urban grid was...