Globalization, as a material and ideational process, is not just about changing power relations between nation-states and the global system. Mostly, it consists of a multiplicity of micro-processes working at a local scale to reshape the urban landscape, and give rise to aesthetics of change. Thus the relation between material space and symbolic space of representation becomes central to an understanding of globalization dynamics. Urban sustainability can be regarded as an ideological key-concept to critically approaching globalization. From the perspective of aesthetics of global change, this paper will consider a given body of still images to explore urban dynamics as a visual phenomenon at the local-global scale of Melbourne, Australia. Indeed, this paper attempts to create the space for the articulation, not necessarily the response, to the question: 'What, beyond visual stereotypes, does a representation of urban sustainability look like?' Informed by theory and direct observation, and supported by selected visual evidence, this paper argues, with respect to urban sustainability, Melbourne's urban dynamic display of visual heterogeneity. Thus, it suggests an aesthetic, fragmented ideological landscape.
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