Abstract

This paper takes as its starting point the conjoining of the perceived and conceived spaces of what Soja (1996) calls Thirdspace and what Lefebvre calls ‘lived space’ to launch a discussion about ideas surrounding contemporary concepts of community. The sites under discussion are the ubiquitous shopping malls and the enclave estates or master planned communities (mpcs) which, it is argued, by their design offer only ‘illusions of community.’ The claim in this paper is that within these spaces of control are spatialities of resistance–vagrant spaces-that can, under certain circumstances, point to the—poverty of participation—in the community experience.