Abstract

For the past three decades an ever increasing trend towards socio-spatial exclusion was to be observed in Latin American cities with approximatively 80,000-plus inhabitants. Gated communities, hermetically closed off from their neighbourhoods by walls and sophisticated security installations can be found in almost all of them. At first only already existing streets were sealed off, then high-rise apartment blocks with attendants and gated neighbourhoods ("barrios cerrados ") with up to 150 or 200 houses were built. A tendency towards social exclusiveness a nd an inward orientation of family homes are characteristic of Latin American societies, therefore such systems of eclosure might, at first sight, be interpreted as a new expression of old traditions, but during the past few years mega-projects for many thousands of people were launched. They no longer form just large quarters within cities, but actually are cities, only accessible by their inhabitants. In Santiago de Chile such settlements were even linked by special highways closed to the general public. This new development can only be explained as the result of combined effects of globalisation and neoliberalism.