ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, a conceptualisation of the environment within the system has been performed in the form of asymmetry. The systemic environment of the environmental legal system has been found in a simultaneous relation of continuum and rupture with the system, thereby instituting a presence within the system, which, however remains inaccessible to the system itself. Such presence/absence is further examined in this chapter, this time in the context of the city. The city is deemed an appropriate terrain on which to proceed with an elaboration of the above form for various reasons: the institutionalised absence of the natural environment from the city; a replacement of the traditional definition of environment in the context of the city with human-made and exclusionary constructions; and a relation of ambiguous continuum between the city and its resources, ranging from the parasitic to the conceptually akin. The above will be put on an abstract level as the location of the city on the cusp of continuum/rupture with its environment.
