New Suburbs in the Making? Locating Master Planned Estates in a Comparative Analysis of Suburbs in South-East Queensland

摘要

在城市学研究者眼里，总体规划项目（MPEs）代表了城巿环境的普遍变化，其特点是同质、富足的飞地，社区生活基本由开发商规划。然而没有人认真思考总体规划项目是否在居民构成、社交水平和社区感情方面有别于其他类型的郊外小区。本文采用实证方法，通过人口和社会经济特征以及主要社区社交过程，考察不同类型的结构，检验总体规划项目是否与"传统的"郊外小区有所不同。我们使用2008年对澳大利亚布里斯班148个郊外小区（包括两个总体规划项目）的研究数据，对郊区的总体规划项目和其他小区进行比较研究，并考察其邻里网络的密度、居民自述对居住地的感情、居住地凝聚力和邻里交往。研究结果表明，总体规划项目在同质性和社会经济特征方面并无特殊之处，但尽管-或许正因为-开发商的积极干预，其居民交往低于其他郊外小区。%In urban scholarship Master Planned Estates (MPEs) are viewed as illustrative of broader changes to the urban environment and characterised as homogenous, affluent enclaves where community life is largely orchestrated by the developer. Yet no study has fully considered if, and to what extent, MPEs can be distinguished from other suburb types in terms of their residential composition and their levels of sociability and community attachment. In this article, we empirically test if MPEs are different from 'conventional' suburbs by examining them structurally in terms of their demographic and socio-economic characteristics, as well as in terms of their key community social processes. Using data from a 2008 study of 148 suburbs across Brisbane, Australia (which includes data from two MPEs), we undertake a comparative analysis of suburbs and examine the density of neighbour networks, residents' reports of place attachment and cohesion and neighbourly contact in MPEs compared to other residential suburbs. Our findings suggest that MPEs are not distinct in terms of their degree of homogeneity and socio-economic characteristics, but that connections among residents are lower than other suburbs despite-or perhaps because of-the active interventions of the developer.