This is an essay about gated communities and their impact on society. The key questions of my essay are: why people choose to live in gated communities; how the city is impacted by gated communities and what the difference concerning the reasons and impact of gated communities in Florida and Sweden is, and what this difference might depend on. I am using postmodern urbanism as a starting point, and I look closer on Edward J. Soja’s theories about the postmodern metropolis. The research about gated communities is almost nonexistent in Sweden, so the literature I have read and used in my essay has mostly an American perspective. For a Swedish perspective I have among other things interviewed a professor in urban planning from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

My study shows that a search for security and a certain lifestyle are the main reasons for people to live or want to live in gated communities, both in Florida and in Sweden. However, there is a big difference in the subject between Florida and Sweden, mainly because there are only a few living areas in Sweden that can be considered as being gated communities. In Sweden a new lifestyle community called Victoria Park and is considered being a “Swedish gated community” has gotten a lot of critique in the media. This shows that gated communities are not really accepted in Sweden yet. In Florida gated communities are not considered extraordinary and you can see the negative impacts they have had on the city, like empty cities without the service that is now found inside gated communities.

Gated communities can be seen by some as a dream living situation, and for others a nightmare. Living in a private community with gates are not yet something you can do in Sweden, but the development of living areas like Victoria Park and its popularity show that maybe it won’t take long until it’s not considered as an irregularity.