SUBURBAN IMAGINATION

TOPOPHILIA AND TOPOPHOBIA

Abstract

This paper discusses the American imagination of "Suburbia as paradise", e.r., the conjunction of freedm and nature that allows well-off residents to dwell topophilically. The diffusion of this imagination throughout âtin America has gained such an impetus in the last decades that it can now be considered as an intrinsic dimension of urban life in several Latin-American cities. This article discusses the "re-semantization" of this imagination in the case of Mexico City's oriental periphery: in this case, the periphery is conceived as space of fear that dwelt in a topophobical way