A Glimpse over the Rising Walls. The Reflection of Post-Communist Transformation in the Polish Discourse of Gated Communities
A Glimpse over the Rising Walls. The Reflection of Post-Communist Transformation in the Polish Discourse of Gated Communities

Summary/Abstract: The authors focus on societal perceptions of the Polish post-communist transformation as reflected in the rising discourse of gated communities. Guarded, (video-) controlled and/or walled housing estates have been on the sprawl in the Polish metropolises throughout the 1990s and 2000s. However, only recently they have been discursively constructed—under the banner of “gated communities”—as a social and political issue in the country. The authors look at this issue from a vantage point offered by Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of discourse, which allows the authors to combine a spatial and a linguistic analytical perspective. The analysis emphasizes the manner in which societal perceptions of borders surrounding gated communities overlap with perceptions of boundaries being inscribed in the social structure of post-communist Poland, while the resulting socio–spatial configurations are taken to signify political cleavages inherent in the Polish nation.

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