A study of social cohesion in gated communities : a comparative study of public and private housing estate in Hong Kong

Abstract

Over the last several decades, there has been a rapid spreading of gated housing developments globally and the impact of this phenomenon of neighbourhood cohesion in gated communities became a matter of rising concern in urban studies. The literature review defines gated communities as residential developments with restricted public access and public spaces inside the residential areas are privatized. Social cohesion is defined as the ‘glue’ sticking individuals within societal units (individuals, groups, associations as well as territorial units) together. Buckner’s three neighbourhood cohesion concepts including Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC), Attraction and Neighbouring are adopted in this study. Housing in Hong Kong is heavily gated although the extent of gating varies between different types of housing. This study investigated the level of gatedness between different housing tenure including public rental housing, subsidized housing and private housing. Furthermore, this study also compares social cohesion in a highly gated housing estate (Royal Peninsula) and ungated housing estate (Ka Wai Chuen) to identify the impact of gating on social cohesion. In the analysis, the NCI score pattern between gated and ungated communities is quite similar. Overall, the mean score of PSOC and Attraction are slightly higher than the mean score of Neighbouring. However, the level of Neighbouring is significant higher in the ungated community than the gated community. There is no significant difference in PSOC and Attraction between the gated and ungated estate. The results support some literature that the barriers of gated communities would lead to segregation. Apart from the gatedness of community, demographic and socio-economic variables (sex, age, education attainment, occupation, household structure, household income and length of residence) could also be factors affecting neighbourhood cohesion. In the analysis, age, education attainment, occupation and length of residence show significant difference. Aged residents would have greater Attraction than younger residents. Residents with secondary education have a higher PSOC than residents with tertiary or above. Housework and retired group have a higher PSOC than students and employed group. Residents who have lived in their estate for more than 12 years have higher Neighbouring than who have lived on their estate for 8 -11 years. Therefore, while there are some differences in neighbourhood cohesion between residents of the gated and ungated community, socio-demographic characteristics also play an important role in explaining differences in social cohesion.