Abstract
This paper proposes to study space that has rejected its inhabitants – the autoimmune space. It will be jointly presented, from the perspectives of Geography and Cultural Studies. Through the lens of autoimmunity and immunity, the paper will examine the Police backed concept of ‘Secure by Design’ (SbD) housing estates together with the notion of the gated community. It will argue that while the classic gated community enacts an immune reaction by incorporating a benign fragment of the excluded working class – security guards – which must, in turn, exclude the malign remainder, the SbD housing estate transposes the exclusionary technologies of the gated community to a working class context. This enacts an autoimmune reaction, in which an organism’s immunity fails to recognise, and so attacks, its own constituent parts, by othering both the outsider and the insider. The technologies used in gated communities designate the stranger as a threat – a virus to be excluded. However when a working class housing estate incorporates these technologies the estate reacts against its inhabitants, who take on the dual roles of the (auto)immune reaction and the virus. They must constantly identify each other as threats. Thus, our paper will describe the pathogenesis of the autoimmune space.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Critical Legal Conference |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |
| Event | Critical Legal Theory - University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands Duration: 10 Sept 2010 → 12 Sept 2010 |
Conference
| Conference | Critical Legal Theory |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Netherlands |
| City | Utrecht |
| Period | 10/09/2010 → 12/09/2010 |
Keywords
- Gated Communities
- Urban Planning
- Critical Geography
- Public Space
