ABSTRACT
Based on the assumptions o f Montreal geographer Julie-Anne Boudreau described above, we have chosen to respond to the issues and proposals most likely to trigger innovative thinking about ‘the city’, its ‘inhabitants’ and those who shape it today - a process that involves relative violence that, nonetheless, is fundamental to the creation of spaces with the specific qualities (Pedrazzini, 2005, 2007). Hence, our discussion with J.-A. Boudreau focused primarily on what she calls ‘post-heroism’, ‘urban action’ along with figures of contemporary urbanity (of which we have chosen the most ‘outsider’, whom we will refer to as ‘punks’). As we begin our thinking about urbanity and its oxymoronic ‘heroic’ figures, we will liberate the ‘punk’ from his coffin - caricaturistic Mohawk, studded-belt and all - and use the term to describe a rebellious, unruly, messy and raw space. This space is characterized by its irremediable incompatibility with the capitalist, democratic urban order o f the early 21st century - in short, an urbanity that is irreconcilable with artistic productivity and contemporary creative wage systems, which we will refer to as punkspace.
