Статті в журналах з теми "Littoral urbanism"

Les « villes-stations » de Benicasim et d'Oropesa del Mar sont situées dans le nord de la Costa del Azahar. La première constitue un lieu touristique « inventé » au début du XXe siècle par des familles bourgeoises de Valence, puis redécouvert à la fin du siècle par les principaux décideurs de la classe politique et des milieux d'affaires de la capitale, Madrid. La seconde est une station balnéaire créée en 1960 pour le tourisme populaire. Dans ces deux stations, le tourisme de masse a provoqué l'envahissement du littoral, fondé sur le système du sol y playa. Depuis un siècle, on constate un dédoublement urbain (bourg rural/ foyer balnéaire) et une croissance urbaine par alignement des immeubles en front de mer. La contiguïté spatiale entre stations balnéaires et villes littorales crée aujourd'hui un véritable continuum côtier urbanisé. Ce phénomène tend à l'uniformisation des paysages littoraux et provoque une densification de l'espace côtier qui gagne de plus en plus l'arrière-pays.

Abstract The accelerated and uncontrolled urbanisation in the coastal zone of Mostaganem is exclusively at the expense of agricultural and natural areas and is reflected in the aggravation of their degradation. The study area is a 62-km-long littoral to the west of Mostaganem and includes 11 municipalities. The Corine Land Cover nomenclature was used by exploiting data from Landsat satellite images over a 30-year period. The exploitation of statistics related to agricultural and forestry areas reveals a worrying dynamics. All spaces are under pressure mainly due to urbanisation. The phenomena of urbanization and coastalisation and the development of seaside tourism have increased the pressures on natural heritage to the point of compromising it. The analysis identified seven thematic object classes for the study area. An assessment of the dynamics of urban, forest and agricultural areas is an informative indicator of the sustainability of natural areas in the coastline of Mostaganem. The cultivated areas measured from 42,356 ha in 1985 to 38,301 ha in 2015,forest formations from 8207 ha to 9298 ha and urbanised areas from 2604 ha to 5049 ha. The dramatic land use change stimulated by rapid urbanisation in the study areas has resulted in a fundamental change in the landscape pattern. The thematic maps and the results obtained through different periods show that the predominant agricultural landscape has been gradually converted into urban areas.

La gestion des territoires est confrontée à de nombreux défis du fait des changements globaux et de la dynamique d’urbanisation qui les affectent. Manifestant les limites des approches fonctionnelles et sectorielles, ce contexte sensible invite à investir les approches systémiques pour éviter ce que certain qualifie de catastrophe civilisationnelle.Une de ces approches systémiques convoque la résilience comme mode d’action collective pour agir sur le futur des territoires. La résilience cherche en effet à influencer leur trajectoire dans un sens désirable, en associant les populations. Suscitant un véritable engouement, la résilience nécessite encore de stabiliser un cadre d’étude des espaces les plus exposés aux effets systémiques, en lien avec les changements globaux, en y adjoignant des leviers d’action.L’objet de cet article est de répondre à ce besoin des gestionnaires en mobilisant différents travaux récents.Trois séminaires organisés par le Cerema en 2016, 2017 et 2019 permettent de disposer d’un cadre de référence de la résilience des territoires exposés à des crises de natures multiples et devant relever des défis majeurs. Ce cadre de référence résulte des travaux collectifs des universitaires et de nombreux experts de plusieurs disciplines ayant mis en évidence l’apport des approches transversales.En s’appuyant sur ces travaux, l’article propose un cadre d’étude systémique des territoires. Deux exemples sont utilisés : celui de Givors, espace urbanisé situé au sud de la métropole de Lyon et celui de Semarang, ville littorale indonésienne exposée aux aléas naturels dont la subsidence. En mobilisant ces deux cas représentatifs des défis à relever par les gestionnaires des territoires, l’article montre comment le cadre d’étude renvoie à la résilience.L’article définit ce cadre en proposant plusieurs éléments caractéristiques d’un territoire exposé à de fortes interactions entre ses composantes humaines ou non humaines, à savoir : le cadre dominant, l’empreinte écologique, les notions d’espaces limites et d’espaces critiques, les types de perturbations, l’approche tripolaire et les leviers de résilience utiles aux gestionnaires.Enfin, la résilience nécessite d’associer étroitement les populations. A ce titre, l’article aborde dans le cadre prédéfini la question de l’habitat résilient et de l’habitabilité des territoires, et suggère quelques perspectives pour que cette préoccupation soit prise en compte.

La situation de la Guyane-Française, département français d’Amérique, est un exemple fort de l’exigence de prendre en compte les paramètres transculturels pour comprendre et agir sur la prévention du suicide. On distingue, dans cette région, la population vivant sur le littoral ayant accès aux principales ressources et la population vivant dans les communes de l’intérieur. En effet, les peuples de la Guyane sont irrégulièrement répartis sur 84 000 km2. Certains villages sont éloignés des structures de soins et de santé parfois de plusieurs jours de pirogues. Les dernières études de l’OMS démontrent que les risques du suicide croissent avec l’éloignement des centres urbanisés. La population résidant sur les deux fleuves de la Guyane et à l’Intérieur (espace forestier amazonien) présente une vulnérabilité au suicide supérieure à tous les autres segments de la société guyanaise et française. Ces suicides sont essentiellement le fait de jeunes. La question du suicide chez les populations autochtones de la Guyane révèle un mal être profond qui dépasse la simple conception médicopsychologique du risque de passage à l’acte. Les causes de ce phénomène sont pluridimensionnelles et regroupent entre autres des facteurs psychologiques, sociaux, anthropologiques, écologiques et politiques. Si les passages à l’acte sont dans la majorité des cas liés à une consommation excessive d’alcool et déclenchés par des motifs au premier abord anodins (différends familiaux, obstacle à l’achat de produits de consommation), ils résultent plutôt de la manifestation extrême d’un mal-être bien plus profond. Pertes de repères liés à la modification brutale des modes de vie, déstructuration de la cellule familiale, inactivité en particulier chez les jeunes, échecs scolaires, absence de perspectives d’avenir et isolement sont des motifs qui peuvent expliquer le comportement suicidaire. Un partenaire majeur dans cette réflexion est le CCPAB (Conseil consultatif des populations amérindiennes et Bushininge de Guyane), instance auprès de la future collectivité unique, siégeant à la Préfecture, spécifique aux DOM, qui fait du suicide des autochtones un axe prioritaire de lutte. C’est une démarche intégrative de ces dimensions pour une évaluation globale avec des outils spécifiques que nous construisons au sein de l’équipe Inserm (Ipsom) à laquelle est adossée la CeRMEPI (cellule régionale pour le mieux être des populations de l’intérieur) créée par le préfet. Cette prise en charge holistique permettra d’aider le travail plus spécifiquement médical de prévention et de soins qui est actuellement effectué par les services de psychiatrie de Guyane grâce aux équipes mobiles et à la CUMP (cellule d’urgence médicopsychologique).

Рассматриваются теория и практика трансформации городской среды в условиях восстановления исходных экосистем урбанизированных морских прибрежных территорий. Авторы основываются на принципах экологической архитектуры и урбанизма, согласно которым комфортная городская среда формируется прежде всего через сохранение и восстановление исходного природного контекста и включения в нее природных систем. На основе обзора мирового опыта развития приморских городов авторы выделяют три основные направления архитектурно-экологической реновации их береговой линии: воспроизведение утраченных природных ландшафтов архитектурно-градостроительными средствами, восстановление исходных природных ландшафтов и введение новых ландшафтных форм. Проведенная в работе оценка исходного и современного состояния береговой линии Владивостока позволила предложить первоочередные участки архитектурно-экологической реновации городского побережья и разработать экспериментальные проектные предложения по реновации побережья, а также литоральной зоны промышленных территорий, расположенных в кутовой части бухт Золотой Рог, Диомид и Улисс. Предложены основные направления по разработке и реализации комплексного подхода к архитектурно-экологической реновации урбанизированной береговой линии в условиях южного побережья Приморского края. Ключевые слова: экологический урбанизм, экологическая архитектура, ландшафтный урбанизм, реновация прибрежных территорий, водосберегающий городской дизайн The article examines the theory and practice of transforming the urban environment in the context of the restoration of the original ecosystems of urbanized marine coastal areas. The theoretical basis of the research is based on the principles of ecological architecture and urbanism, according to which a comfortable urban environment is formed primarily through the preservation and restoration of the original natural context, and the inclusion of natural systems in the urban environment. It is this approach to the architectural and ecological renovation of urbanized marine waterfront areas in regional conditions that should ensure the stability of the built environment to growing climatic changes, provide the population of cities with resources of clean water and air, and contribute to the formation of a favorable temperature and humidity microclimate for buildings. Based on a review of world experience, the article identifies three main areas of architectural and ecological renovation of the waterfront of waterfront: reproduction of lost natural landscapes by architectural and urban planning tools, restoration of original natural landscapes and the introduction of new landscape forms. As a result of the assessment of the initial and current state of the Vladivostok coastline, priority areas for architectural and ecological renovation of the city coast were proposed, and experimental project proposals for the renovation of the coast and the littoral zone of industrial territories located in the innermost part of the Golden Horn, Diomid and Ulysses bays were developed. The main directions for the development and implementation of the complex approach to the architectural and ecological renovation of an urbanized coastline in the conditions of the southern coast of Primorsky Krai are proposed. Keywords: ecological urbanism, ecological architecture, landscape urbanism, renovation of coastal territories, water saving urban design

L’étude diachronique des températures de surface (Ts) prises pendant la saison chaude par situation anticyclonique radiative (temps clair et calme) est réalisée dans l’aire métropolitaine de Casablanca à l’aide d’une série d’images infrarouges thermiques Landsat multi-dates sur la période 1984-2019. Les thermographies obtenues sont alors analysées pour évaluer les gradients thermiques de jour comme de nuit au sein de ce territoire côtier densément peuplé. Les résultats obtenus montrent l’existence en fin de matinée, d’îlots de fraîcheur urbains au niveau du sol (IFUs) couvrant les villes de Casablanca et de Mohammedia. La nuit, ces IFUs se muent en îlots de chaleur urbains au niveau du sol (ICUs), les Ts étant alors plus faibles dans l’intérieur des terres par rapport à celles de la conurbation littorale. Par ailleurs, sur la période 1984-2019, une bonne concordance entre l’évolution spatio-temporelle des surfaces chaudes et celle des espaces urbanisés est établie en journée.

Para este número de RevistArquis, además de presentar una serie de documentos, los cuales problematizan temáticas propias de la Arquitectura, la Ciudad y el Territorio, se estrena un nuevo diseño gráfico. Iniciativa que busca colocar el contenido de la Revista de manera dinámica, creativa y fluida y, así, volver más atractivos los artículos para el creciente público especializado. Sin olvidar, evidentemente, la calidad editorial, científica y divulgativa que se ha mantenido en estos últimos cinco años. Esta duodécima entrega (Volumen 6, Número 1) está compuesta por 9 aportaciones organizadas en tres secciones temáticas. En “Ciudad y territorio” se encuentra un artículo de investigación, tres ensayos académicos y un ensayo de reflexión. En “Arquitectura” se encuentran cuatro reseñas de proyectos. En “Conversaciones” aparece una entrevista, realizada por Jorge Grané del Castillo, a la arquitecta Marian Pérez Gutiérrez. Abre “¿Gentrificación latinoamericana? Apuntes para su discusión”, elaborado por Luis Alberto Salinas Arreortua, muestra las razones por las que el concepto de gentrificación, que emerge en el mundo anglosajón a mediados del siglo XX, tiene una aparición tardía en América Latina. El autor explica, desde una perspectiva crítica, los rasgos que caracterizan, dentro de esta reciente producción académica, los procesos de gentrificación en las ciudades de la región: a) gentrificación simbólica - transformaciones sociales en la imagen urbana, b) políticas neoliberales de gentrificación y de revalorización del patrimonio histórico, c) nuevos mercados inmobiliarios e inversión privada en el centro y periferia de la ciudad. “Los estudios culturales y la construcción social del patrimonio cultural” de Rosa Elena Malavassi Aguilar, realiza una revisión de los postulados de los principales autores, tanto latinoamericanos como europeos y norteamericanos, de la corriente de los estudios culturales, para definir un esquema de análisis aplicable al caso de estudio del patrimonio costarricense. Se encuentra en este ensayo un valiosa discusión conceptual sobre las relaciones entre lo cultural y lo político. Por su parte, “Un centro cívico o el réquiem del patrimonio urbano costarricense” de Marcela Muñoz Muñoz, ofrece una “honra póstuma” a la arquitectura pública de la capital costarricense, por medio del estudio de una serie de discusiones legislativas dadas a mediados del siglo XX. Con dicha discusión legislativa, la autora brinda nuevas luces para la comprensión de los problemas jurídicos de corte urbanístico para ejempli car por qué en Costa Rica ha prevalecido un modelo “destructor” sobre uno urbanístico, en detrimento siempre de la arquitectura histórica, pública y privada. “Viabilidad para la implementación de estrategias de renovación urbana en Costa Rica” de Dania Chavarría Nuñez, analiza los posibles escenarios que existen en el país para revertir las tendencias negativas que genera el modelo de ciudad dispersa. Para esto, se toma como base la legislación urbana existente para promover un modelo de ciudad compacta y trabajo en los centros urbanos. El texto hace particular énfasis en la posibilidad de desarrollar e implementar estrategias de renovación urbana fomentando competencias en los gobiernos locales para el ordenamiento del territorio. Cierra esta sección “Estado actual y perspectivas de la Legislación urbana en Costa Rica” de Jessica Martínez Porras, que reseña y comenta las principales normativas de planificación desarrolladas a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Este recorrido permite, según la autora, constatar que los marcos legales urbanos se encuentran rezagados en comparación con los avances normativos implementados en otros países en América Latina. Y que, por lo tanto, es necesario actualizar la jurisdicción nacional en esta materia. Por último, aparecen en esta publicación, cuatro reseñas. Dos proyectos elaborados en el Posgrado Landscape Urbanism de la Architectural Association School of Architecture, un proyecto elegido como ganador del Primer Concurso de Bono Comunal organizado por el Ministerio de Vivienda y Asentamientos Humanos y un proyecto elaborado en la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Costa Rica. “Littoral Negotiations”, desarrollado por Liam Mouritz, Chan Ting Fu, Xiabin Hu, Eduardo Rico y José Alfredo Ramírez, muestra la generación de escenarios alternativos para un contexto y territorio específicos: el Mar Mediterráneo. “Toward a territorial praxis”, de José Alfredo Ramírez y Clara Olóriz, aborda el surgimiento del “territorio” como campo para el ejercicio del diseño y de la investigación entendiendo la arquitectura dentro de las condiciones contemporáneas de su ejercicio. “Parque de la Libertad” de Luis Diego Alpizar y Tania Arguedas busca el rescate de espacios de recreación en la comunidad de Pavas, en la Provincia de San José. La propuesta cuenta con un programa de nuevas actividades como el bicicross, skateboarding, fútbol, zonas de descanso, áreas feriales y una serie de senderos que, en su conjunto, propician nuevas dinámicas de apropiación. Harold Jiménez presenta “Coopeprocesadora de infusiones naturales de la zona del caribe de Costa Rica”, espacio ideado para la dinamización y desarrollo de la comunidad de Siquirres, en la Provincia de Limón, por medio de la creación de empleos a través de nuevas actividades industriales en la zona. Con estas diversas e interesantes colaboraciones se hace pública la primera entrega del año 2017. Recordando y agradeciendo, de paso, a todas las personas que han colaborado con la escritura y evaluación de los presentes artículos y, de manera especial, a todas las personas que fortalecen el diálogo académico con la lectura detallada y paciente de RevistArquis.

Conurbation [f. CON- + L. urb- and urbs city + -ation] An aggregation of urban areas. (OED) Beyond the urban, further and lower even than the suburban, lies the con-urban. The conurban: with the urban, partaking of the urbane, lying against but also perhaps pushing against or being contra the urban. Conurbations stretch littorally from Australian cities, along coastlines to other cities, joining cities through the passage of previously outlying rural areas. Joining the dots between cities, towns, and villages. Providing corridors between the city and what lies outside. The conurban is an accretion, an aggregation, a piling up, or superfluity of the city: Greater London, for instance. It is the urban plus, filling the gaps between cities, as Los Angeles oozing urbanity does for the dry, desert areas abutting it (Davis 1990; Soja 1996). I wish to propose that the conurban imaginary is a different space from its suburban counterpart. The suburban has provided a binary opposition to what is not the city, what lies beneath its feet, outside its ken. Yet it is also what is greater than the urban, what exceeds it. In modernism, the city and its denizens define themselves outside what is arrayed around the centre, ringing it in concentric circles. In stark relief to the modernist lines of the skyscraper, contrasting with the central business district, central art galleries and museums, is to be found the masses in the suburbs. The suburban as a maligned yet enabling trope of modernism has been long revalued, in the art of Howard Arkeley, and in photography of suburban Gothic. It comes as no surprise to read a favourable newspaper article on the Liverpool Regional Art Gallery, in Sydney's Western Suburbs, with its exhibition on local chicken empires, Liverpool sheds, or gay and lesbians living on the city fringe. Nor to hear in the third way posturing of Australian Labor Party parliamentarian Mark Latham, the suburbs rhetorically wielded, like a Victa lawn mover, to cut down to size his chardonnay-set inner-city policy adversaries. The politics of suburbia subtends urban revisionism, reformism, revanchism, and recidivism. Yet there is another less exhausted, and perhaps exhaustible, way of playing the urban, of studying the metropolis, of punning on the city's proper name: the con-urban. World cities, as Saskia Sassen has taught us, have peculiar features: the juxtaposition of high finance and high technology alongside subaltern, feminized, informal economy (Sassen 1998). The Australian city proudly declared to be a world city is, of course, Sydney while a long way from the world's largest city by population, it is believed to be the largest in area. A recent newspaper article on Brisbane's real estate boom, drew comparisons with Sydney only to dismiss them, according to one quoted commentator, because as a world city, Sydney was sui generis in Australia, fairly requiring comparison with other world cities. One form of conurbanity, I would suggest, is the desire of other settled areas to be with the world city. Consider in this regard, the fate of Byron Bay a fate which lies very much in the balance. Byron Bay is sign that circulates in the field of the conurban. Craig MacGregor has claimed Byron as the first real urban culture outside an Australian city (MacGregor 1995). Local residents hope to keep the alternative cultural feel of Byron, but to provide it with a more buoyant economic outlook. The traditional pastoral, fishing, and whaling industries are well displaced by niche handicrafts, niche arts and craft, niche food and vegetables, a flourishing mind, body and spirit industry, and a booming film industry. Creative arts and cultural industries are blurring into creative industries. The Byron Bay area at the opening of the twenty-first century is attracting many people fugitive from the city who wish not to drop out exactly; rather to be contra wishes rather to be gently contrary marked as distinct from the city, enjoying a wonderful lifestyle, but able to persist with the civilizing values of an urban culture. The contemporary figure of Byron Bay, if such a hybrid chimera may be represented, wishes for a conurbanity. Citizens relocate from Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney, seeking an alternative country and coastal lifestyle and, if at all possible, a city job (though without stress) (on internal migration in Australia see Kijas 2002): Hippies and hip rub shoulders as a sleepy town awakes (Still Wild About Byron, (Sydney Morning Herald, 1 January 2002). Forerunners of Byron's conurbanity leave, while others take their place: A sprawling $6.5 million Byron Bay mansion could be the ultimate piece of memorabilia for a wealthy fan of larrikin Australian actor Paul Hogan (Hoges to sell up at Byron Bay, Illawarra Mercury, 14 February 2002). The ABC series Seachange is one key text of conurbanity: Laura Gibson has something of a city job she can ply the tools of her trade as a magistrate while living in an idyllic rural location, a nice spot for a theme park of contemporary Australian manners and nostalgia for community (on Sea Change see Murphy 2002). Conurban designates a desire to have it both ways: cityscape and pastoral mode. Worth noting is that the Byron Shire has its own independent, vibrant media public sphere, as symbolized by the Byron Shire Echo founded in 1986, one of the great newspapers outside a capital city (Martin & Ellis 2002): <http://www.echo.net.au>. Yet the textual repository in city-based media of such exilic narratives is the supplement to the Saturday broadsheet papers. A case in point is journalist Ruth Ostrow, who lives in hills in the Byron Shire, and provides a weekly column in the Saturday Australian newspaper, its style gently evocative of just one degree of separation from a self-parody of New Age mores: Having permanently relocated to the hills behind Byron Bay from Sydney, it's interesting for me to watch friends who come up here on holiday over Christmas… (Ostrow 2002). The Sydney Morning Herald regards Byron Bay as another one of its Northern beaches, conceptually somewhere between Palm Beach and Pearl Beach, or should one say Pearl Bay. The Herald's fascination for Byron Bay real estate is coeval with its obsession with Sydney's rising prices: Byron Bay's hefty price tags haven't deterred beach-lovin' boomers (East Enders, Sydney Morning Herald 17 January 2002). The Australian is not immune from this either, evidence 'Boom Times in Byron', special advertising report, Weekend Australia, Saturday 2 March 2002. And plaudits from The Financial Review confirm it: Prices for seafront spots in the enclave on the NSW north coast are red hot (Smart Property, The Financial Review, 19 January 2002). Wacky North Coast customs are regularly covered by capital city press, the region functioning as a metonym for drugs. This is so with Nimbin especially, with regular coverage of the Nimbin Mardi Grass: Mardi Grass 2001, Nimbin's famous cannabis festival, began, as they say, in high spirits in perfect autumn weather on Saturday (Oh, how they danced a high old time was had by all at the Dope Pickers' Ball, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 2001). See too coverage of protests over sniffer dogs in Byron Bay in Easter 2001 showed (Peatling 2001). Byron's agony over its identity attracts wider audiences, as with its quest to differentiate itself from the ordinariness of Ballina as a typical Aussie seaside town (Buttrose 2000). There are national metropolitan audiences for Byron stories, readers who are familiar with the Shire's places and habits: Lismore-reared Emma Tom's 2002 piece on the politics of perving at King's beach north of Byron occasioned quite some debate from readers arguing the toss over whether wanking on the beach was perverse or par for the course: Public masturbation is a funny old thing. On one hand, it's ace that some blokes feel sexually liberated enough to slap the salami any old time… (Tom 2002). Brisbane, of course, has its own designs upon Byron, from across the state border. Brisbane has perhaps the best-known conurbation: its northern reaches bleed into the Sunshine Coast, while its southern ones salute the skyscrapers of Australia's fourth largest city, the Gold Coast (on Gold Coast and hinterland see Griffin 2002). And then the conburbating continues unabated, as settlement stretches across the state divide to the Tweed Coast, with its mimicking of Sanctuary Cove, down to the coastal towns of Ocean Shores, Brunswick Heads, Byron, and through to Ballina. Here another type of infrastructure is key: the road. Once the road has massively overcome the topography of rainforest and mountain, there will be freeway conditions from Byron to Brisbane, accelerating conurbanity. The caf is often the short-hand signifier of the urban, but in Byron Bay, it is film that gives the urban flavour. Byron Bay has its own International Film Festival (held in the near-by boutique town of Bangalow, itself conurban with Byron.), and a new triple screen complex in Byron: Up north, film buffs Geraldine Hilton and Pete Castaldi have been busy. Last month, the pair announced a joint venture with Dendy to build a three-screen cinema in the heart of Byron Bay, scheduled to open mid-2002. Meanwhile, Hilton and Castaldi have been busy organising the second Byron All Screen Celebration Film Festival (BASC), after last year's inaugural event drew 4000 visitors to more than 50 sessions, seminars and workshops. Set in Bangalow (10 minutes from Byron by car, less if you astral travel)… (Cape Crusaders, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 2002). The film industry is growing steadily, and claims to be the largest concentration of film-makers outside of an Australian capital city (Henkel 2000 & 2002). With its intimate relationship with the modern city, film in its Byron incarnation from high art to short video, from IMAX to multimedia may be seen as the harbinger of the conurban. If the case of Byron has something further to tell us about the transformation of the urban, we might consider the twenty-first century links between digital communications networks and conurbanity. It might be proposed that telecommunications networks make it very difficult to tell where the city starts and ends; as they interactively disperse information and entertainment formerly associated with the cultural institutions of the metropolis (though this digitization of urbanity is more complex than hyping the virtual suggest; see Graham & Marvin 1996). The bureau comes not just to the 'burbs, but to the backblocks as government offices are closed in country towns, to be replaced by online access. The cinema is distributed across computer networks, with video-on-demand soon to become a reality. Film as a cultural form in the process of being reconceived with broadband culture (Jacka 2001). Global movements of music flow as media through the North Coast, with dance music culture and the doof (Gibson 2002). Culture and identity becomes content for the information age (Castells 1996-1998; Cunningham & Hartley 2001; OECD 1998; Trotter 2001). On e-mail, no-one knows, as the conceit of internet theory goes, where you work or live; the proverbial refashioning of subjectivity by the internet affords a conurbanity all of its own, a city of bits wherever one resides (Mitchell 1995). To render the digital conurban possible, Byron dreams of broadband. In one of those bizarre yet recurring twists of Australian media policy, large Australian cities are replete with broadband infrastructure, even if by 2002 city-dwellers are not rushing to take up the services. Telstra's Foxtel and Optus's Optus Vision raced each other down streets of large Australian cities in the mid-1990s to lay fibre-coaxial cable to provide fast data (broadband) capacity. Cable modems and quick downloading of video, graphics, and large files have been a reality for some years. Now the Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology is allowing people in densely populated areas close to their telephone exchanges to also avail themselves of broadband Australia. In rural Australia, broadband has not been delivered to most areas, much to the frustration of the conurbanites. Byron Bay holds an important place in the history of the internet in Australia, because it was there that one of Australia's earliest and most important internet service providers, Pegasus Network, was established in the late 1980s. Yet Pegasus relocated to Brisbane in 1993, because of poor quality telecommunications networks (Peters 1998). As we rethink the urban in the shadow of modernity, we can no longer ignore or recuse ourselves from reflecting upon its para-urban modes. As we deconstruct the urban, showing how the formerly pejorative margins actually define the centre the suburban for instance being more citified than the grand arcades, plazas, piazzas, or malls; we may find that it is the conurban that provides the cultural imaginary for the urban of the present century. Work remains to be done on the specific modalities of the conurban. The conurban has distinct temporal and spatial coordinates: citizens of Sydney fled to Manly earlier in the twentieth century, as they do to Byron at the beginning of the twenty-first. With its resistance to the transnational commercialization and mass culture that Club Med, McDonalds, and tall buildings represent, and with its strict environment planning regulation which produce a litigious reaction (and an editorial rebuke from the Sydney Morning Herald [SMH 2002]), Byron recuperates the counter-cultural as counterpoint to the Gold Coast. Subtle differences may be discerned too between Byron and, say, Nimbin and Maleny (in Queensland), with the two latter communities promoting self-sufficient hippy community infused by new agricultural classes still connected to the city, but pushing the boundaries of conurbanity by more forceful rejection of the urban. Through such mapping we may discover the endless attenuation of the urban in front and beyond our very eyes; the virtual replication and invocation of the urban around the circuits of contemporary communications networks; the refiguring of the urban in popular and elite culture, along littoral lines of flight, further domesticating the country; the road movies of twenty-first century freeways; the perpetuation and worsening of inequality and democracy (Stilwell 1992) through the action of the conurban. Cities without bounds: is the conurban one of the faces of the postmetropolis (Soja 2000), the urban without end, with no possibility for or need of closure? My thinking on Byron Bay, and the Rainbow Region in which it is situated, has been shaped by a number of people with whom I had many conversations during my four years living there in 1998-2001. 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"Conurban" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.2 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/conurban.php>. Chicago Style Goggin, Gerard, "Conurban" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 2 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/conurban.php> ([your date of access]). APA Style Goggin, Gerard. (2002) Conurban. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(2). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/conurban.php> ([your date of access]).