In many large cities today, spaces of extreme wealth and poverty often exist in proximity. City officials, private developers and wealthy residents often ‘correct’ this cheek-by-jowl situation of proximate yet drastically unequal communities by building physical walls and fences between them. What is the interface between spaces inside and outside the walls built around low-income communities in elite neighbourhoods? How do people living inside the walls built to contain their communities engage with this infrastructure of control? This article addresses these questions by presenting the politics of socio-spatial separation of a low-income and informally built walled community called France Colony in a wealthy neighbourhood in Islamabad (Pakistan). It shows how the wall around France Colony is not only an ineffective sealing device; its porosity has also ironically prompted adjacent wealthy residents to retreat inside their large homes and raise their boundary walls. Not only do walls make obvious the intentions and anxieties of people on the outside trying to control the presence and growth of a low-income community, but spatial practices and negotiations around involuntarily built enclosures can minimise their restrictive intent and provide opportunities for enclosed communities to demand their rights to space.

中文翻译：

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墙壁和开口：伊斯兰堡非正规社区遏制的政治

在当今的许多大城市中，极端富裕和贫困的空间往往相邻。城市官员、私人开发商和富裕居民经常通过在社区之间修建实体墙和栅栏来“纠正”这种紧密相连但又极度不平等的社区状况。精英社区中低收入社区围墙内外的空间之间的界面是什么？生活在为遏制其社区而建造的围墙内的人们如何参与这种控制基础设施？本文通过介绍伊斯兰堡（巴基斯坦）富裕社区中一个名为“法国殖民地”的低收入非正式围墙社区的社会空间分离的政治来解决这些问题。它表明法国殖民地周围的围墙不仅是一个无效的密封装置，而且是一个无效的密封装置。具有讽刺意味的是，它的多孔性还促使邻近的富裕居民撤退到他们的大房子里，并提高了他们的围墙。围墙不仅清楚地表明了外部人们试图控制低收入社区的存在和发展的意图和焦虑，而且围绕非自愿建造的围墙的空间实践和谈判可以最大限度地减少其限制性意图，并为封闭社区提供机会要求他们的太空权利。