Rapid and radical socioeconomic transformations have accompanied the development of the hydrocarbon-exporting economies of the Arab Gulf states. The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are some of the largest recipients of labor migrants in the world, and the region has the second highest rate of urbanization in the world. Given these changes, it is critical to understand the urban impacts of migration flows that have dramatically increased the proportion of foreigners in the cities of the Gulf.

This dissertation examines the urban and social geographies associated with gated housing compounds (developments geared toward white collar expatriate workers) in Bahrain. I investigate how associated productions of urban space and social processes of community formation of compound residents relate to and influence one another. My analysis is based on interviews with expatriates living in compounds and other residential accommodations. I also interviewed academics, planners, and landlords, and conducted surveys, participant observation, archival research, and field surveys. I focused on the experiences of compound residents and the ways in which the built environment influenced these experiences.

The findings illuminate how compound residents perceive their environments at various scales, underscore the variegated impacts of compound living on place attachment, sense of community, and social networks, and highlight how mobility (within and beyond Bahrain) influences these social dimensions of compound living. Finally, challenging notions that residential segregation necessarily limits social interactions, I contend that segregation is not as absolute as it may initially seem; the formation of social ties across compound walls illustrates how the built environment influences the social environments of compound residents, but does not determine them. As residential segregation engenders complex and multifaceted social effects, the findings bring into relief the ways in which various social, cultural, and demographic factors interact with the built environment to shape residents' experiences. This dissertation foregrounds social processes in concert with urban phenomena and contributes to understandings of urban and social dynamics in the Gulf city at a time when the Gulf states have become important global focal points for processes of urbanization and labor migration.