University of Brighton
Conference
‘Beyond Gated Communities Research Conference’
26-28 May 2013
From the series ‘Miss Chuquicamata, the Slag’ (from ‘Copper Geographies’), Chuquicamata, 2012.
An international and interdisciplinary research network on “gated housing estates as an international phenomenon” was established in 1999 in order to facilitate the exchange of information between academics working in this field. Beyond Gated communities seeks to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the Gated Community as a ubiquitious addition to urban life across the globe.
The paper ‘Miss Chuquicamata, the slag: disputed mining settlement between foreign capital and national identity’ discusses the material legacy of the Chilean copper mining industry in the gated corporate mining town of Chuquicamata. Through photographs and an analysis of urban structure, the presentation suggested a parallel between modular architecture and ideas of modernisation, and the ruins as a symbol of their disintegration. This Research Conference was organised around the notion of the ‘gated’ as a contemporary condition of urban life across the globe.