Re: Foucault's "Of Other Spaces"

Patrick,

One book that springs to mind is sociologist Kevin Hetherington's 'Badlands
of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social Ordering', London and New York:
Routledge, 1997. The publisher's blurb is below.

Ryan

Offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity. Through an
analysis of some of the most important social spaces of the 18th century,
this text examines contemporary debates about modernity and postmodernity,
the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in
relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. Drawing on
Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the
author argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas
of utopia and heterotopia. Tha Palais Royal during the French Revolution,
the masonic lodge and the early factories of the industrial revolution are
all analyzed as heterotopia, in which modern social ordering is developed.
Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by social order, the book
argues that we need to take account of the processes that produce social
ordering, their ambiguity and the spaces in which they emerge, if we are to
understand the character of modern societies.


----- Original Message -----

From: patrick van <van@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2000 7:52 AM
Subject: Foucault's "Of Other Spaces"


> Hi
>
> I've just been reading "of other spaces" and was wondering if anyone
> could direct me to secondary material that deals with Focault's concept
> of heterotopias, in particular theorists who have appropriated the term
> for their own means.
>
> Thanks
>
> Pat.
>
>


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