Selling Spectacular Spaces: Hybridized Sport and Space in the Imagination of Enclaved Residential Living in India

This article explores the (dis)connections between urban housing development, (post)colonial legacies and expressions of space, and how ideas of sport and leisure are mobilized in the imagination of gated residential living in Gurgaon, India. Focused on the building of large-scale enclaved development built around golf and polo brands and identities, I challenge common analyses of gated residential complexes as examples of the imposition of neoliberal urban development agendas, or as a manifestation of new forms of architectural colonialism. Utilizing Homi Bhabha’s theorization of hybridity, I show how constructing a hierarchical, sport-based, all-encompassing mini-city is reflective of a localized response to middle-class perceptions of the failure of the state to control and develop the city, that also architecturally references urban mega projects unfolding across Asia. In addition, reflecting on the selective referencing of polo and golf brands/identities in both their past (colonial) and contemporary expressions, I argue sport is mobilized to create new forms of urban living attached with new meanings for consumers. Considered together, I assert the lens of hybridity destabilizes understandings of both sport and gated communities as (neo)colonial and neoliberal by-products by illustrating how these institutions are taken up and remade through colonial and postcolonial transmissions.