Heterotopic Space Research Articles

Athena’s claim in an academic regime of performativity: Discursive organizing of excellence and gender at the intersection of heterotopia and heteronomia

From a Foucauldian perspective, we regard “excellence” and “gender” as discourses that become relevant in academia. We analyze the organizational dispositives of “excellence” and “gender” as organizing patterns and rationalities within academic organizations. Beginning with the modern conceptualization of the independent university as a heterotopic space of and for society, the programmatics of the “entrepreneurial university” shift this heterotopic space into a heteronomic one. How do academic professionals bring about discursive organizing of excellence and gender when reflecting on institutional programmatics and organizational strategies for the promotion of early-career academics? What are these early-career academics’ subject positions that are systematically brought about within these organizational strategies? This article discusses two empirical cases involving academic institutions and strategies of discursive organizing. While in the first case of the global player organization, the claim for excellence is made from a position of “already being there,” the second, aspiring organization is still working toward excellence. This article demonstrates that gender discourses in the global player organization are in a marginalized position, while gender discourses in the aspiring organization gain strategic relevance within the organization’s entrepreneurial strategies. This article therefore shows how heterotopic strategies intermingle and intersect with strategies of heteronomic organization of excellence.

Sharing economy: peer-to-peer accommodation as a foucauldian heterotopia

Purpose This study aims to use Foucault’s theory of heterotopian space to interpret peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation experiences by considering the perceptions of Airbnb hosts and guests. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected through the use of semi-structured interviews with Airbnb hosts and guests of different cultural backgrounds. Findings Informed by Foucault’s heterotopology, study findings identify and discuss the spatial dimensions at the micro-scale that distinguish P2P accommodation space from traditional hospitality spaces, arguing that P2P accommodation represents an interstitial space within the tourism system that triggers a reordering of resources, skills and meanings. Originality/value The paper introduces a cutting-edge perspective on how P2P accommodation spatiality may be viewed or approached in a meaningfully different manner, particularly advancing knowledge on how prescribed roles and practices in hospitality are being redefined.

REFLEXÕES SOBRE CONJUGALIDADE E MATERNIDADE NO CONTO A IMITAÇÃO DA ROSA, DE CLARICE LISPECTOR

Considerando-se que, na nossa sociedade, o “casamento e a maternidade como seu corolário aparecem […] como o locusideal do feminino” (NAVARRO-SWAIN, 2007, p. 210) e, na ordem do sistema patriarcal, “a capacidade específica de procriação do feminino torna-se o próprio feminino […] cuja existência se justifica pela sua capacidade de reprodução” (NAVARRO-SWAIN, 2007, p. 220-221), analisarei o conto “A imitação da rosa”, presente em Laços de Família(1960), a fim de discutir sobre dispositivos do sistema sexo/gênero que, ao longo dos séculos, vêm operando como mecanismos de opressão das mulheres. Entendendo que o principal discurso simbólico do sistema representacional do patriarcado presente neste conto está relacionado à incapacidade de procriação de Laura e, consequentemente, ao não exercício da maternidade, pretende-se discutir, a partir de uma visão teórica foucaltiana, sobre as estratégias adotadas pela personagem para resistir a esses mecanismos de opressão bem como discutir, ainda, em que medida o espaço heterotópico é explorado nessa narrativa como estratégia de resistência.

Reading Heterotopia as a Site of Resistance in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day (1988)

This article uses Foucault’s concept of heterotopia to explain Gloria Naylor’s metaphoric spatial representation of resistance in Mama Day (1988). It seeks to read Willow Springs, a fictitious island lying outside the U.S borders, as a resistant locus that presents a subversive spatio-temporal paradigm as it suggests a possibility for transformation from isolation and marginalization to agency and potential liberation. Heterotopias emphasize the critical potential of space to challenge the hegemony of dominant discourses and give voice to peripheral positions. These spaces, according to Foucault, address discourses of resistance effectively through counter-sites. In Mama Day, then, we argue that Gloria Naylor molds the fictional island of Willow Springs as a heterotopic space, a counter-site where black groups contest the dominant discourses of race and gender. Therefore, this article concludes that in her portrayal of a heterotopic space with an inverting character, Naylor transforms a physical place into a site of agency where the subversive yet productive dynamics of heterotopia interrupt and deconstruct the existing ideologies of mainstream culture.

Reading Heterotopia as a Site of Resistance in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day (1988)

This article uses Foucault’s concept of heterotopia to explain Gloria Naylor’s metaphoric spatial representation of resistance in Mama Day (1988). It seeks to read Willow Springs, a fictitious island lying outside the U.S borders, as a resistant locus that presents a subversive spatio-temporal paradigm as it suggests a possibility for transformation from isolation and marginalization to agency and potential liberation. Heterotopias emphasize the critical potential of space to challenge the hegemony of dominant discourses and give voice to peripheral positions. These spaces, according to Foucault, address discourses of resistance effectively through counter-sites. In Mama Day, then, we argue that Gloria Naylor molds the fictional island of Willow Springs as a heterotopic space, a counter-site where black groups contest the dominant discourses of race and gender. Therefore, this article concludes that in her portrayal of a heterotopic space with an inverting character, Naylor transforms a physical place into a site of agency where the subversive yet productive dynamics of heterotopia interrupt and deconstruct the existing ideologies of mainstream culture.

Uneven Mirrors: Thoughts on the Use of Spatial Doubles and Duplication in Three Recent Works

Uneven Mirrors:Thoughts on the Use of Spatial Doubles and Duplication in Three Recent Works Abel Paúl (bio) Introduction I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me. —Borges 1978, 27 This article examines the role of duplication in three of my recent works from a spatial perspective. Here I focus on several fields of study: instruments, objects, stage setups, and performers. These are regarded in light of spatiality, avoiding as much as possible the implications of the temporal and sonic domains. The role of the performers is mostly analyzed from a static point of view, regarding them as carriers and/or depositaries of spatial significance within specific musical setups. A clear interest in setups in which the instruments, objects, and performers are duplicated is present in my work since 2010. This stems from a long-lasting fascination with the visual reproducibility and the [End Page 5] sense of spatial parallelism generated by mirrors. This interest has been materialized in my own work by the creation of setups in which instruments and performers mirror each other, both from spatial and performative perspectives. The use of duplicated instruments and objects may determine a process of visual and sonic equivalences and associations within the space of performance. However, this audio-visual symmetry may be challenged by the usage of dissimilar sonic materials. This possible contradiction may alter or reformulate the mirrored relationships established between two or more identical instruments, delineating a fragile equilibrium between the aural and visual realms. Metaphorically, from a viewpoint of musical duplication, we could regard the spatial domain—the conjunction of duplicated instruments, objects and performers—as the frame of a mirror. In turn, the reflective surface of this hypothetical mirror would be constituted by the sonic domain, completing in such a way the audio-visual contract. The Borges quote above is particularly appropriate when extrapolated into this particular context: mirrors do not always imply an expected reflection, a causal effect. They are rather conceived as frames of potentiality, as indicators of a possible duplication that may be either confirmed or shattered by the nature of their reflecting surface. In Of Other Spaces (1967), Michel Foucault distinguishes between "utopias" and "heterotopias" as spatial realities that, even if in direct relation with real spaces, reverse, counterbalance, and annul the set of relations they embody and/or reflect. Utopias are spaces without a real place, illusory sites "that have a general relation of direct or inverted analogy with the real space of Society" (1986, 24). Heterotopias, on the other hand, could be defined as the reversal to utopias: existing places in which the rest of real places are "simultaneously represented, contested and inverted" (1986, 24). An illustrative example of this is the theatre. During a play, there is usually a representation of unrelated, alternative spaces—e.g., a battleground, a church, a café, etc.—in the circumscribed realm of the stage. In this regard, the theatre, as a heterotopian space, brings together seemingly disconnected and incompatible places and locations. Interestingly, Foucault describes an intermediate state in which heterotopias and utopias are indissolubly intertwined: the mirror. Mirrors may be regarded as utopias as they create an impression of virtual spatiality, a feeling of displacement, of a place without a place. We find ourselves duplicated behind the surface, our corporeal identity virtually dislocated, transferred to an unreachable location. Simultaneously, mirrors may also be considered heterotopian devices as they are concrete objects that exist in reality. They mark a limit between the [End Page 6] virtual space and the real, allowing us to reconfigure our original sense of place in the process of mirroring. This feeling of displacement is paradoxically counterbalanced by our reflected image, our vision oriented towards ourselves from the other side of the glass, permitting us to reconstruct our original sense of space and identity. As Foucault observes, The mirror functions as a heterotopia in this respect: it makes this place that I occupy at the moment when I look at myself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual...

Tourists as visitors to an Orthodox church temple: interaction analysis in the heterotopic space

Tourists as visitors to an Orthodox church temple: interaction analysis in the heterotopic space

Heterotopias da escrita e deslocamentos do literário

Resumo Neste artigo, propomos uma abordagem da literatura produzida em espaços heterotópicos (Foucault, 2015), onde a palavra surge inesperada. O interesse recai sobre o que desloca a literatura dos espaços instituídos, na perspectiva de uma crítica política, capaz de pôr em questão divisões e hierarquias na ordem do sensível (Rancière, 2009). O universo dessa escrita é examinado a partir da coletânea Exercícios de uma escrita menor: um olhar atelial (Farina, Garavelo e Fonseca, 2014), conjunto de textos produzidos por pacientes do Hospital Psiquiátrico São Pedro, em Porto Alegre.

ОБРАЗНАЯ СИСТЕМА ПОВЕСТИ ДОРИС ЛЕССИНГ «ЛЕТО ПЕРЕД ЗАКАТОМ»

The article deals with the imagery system in the novel The Summer before the Dark (1976) written by the famous English writer and the Nobel Prize Winner in Literature Doris Lessing. Firstly, the emphasis is laid on the opposition of spatial images (topoi of the conventional patriarchal house vs heterotopic spaces), which form a circular composition. Secondly, the article traces leitmotifs of the novel – metaphors of the protagonist’s self-discovery (image of the seal, image of the mirror). On the whole, the imagery system of the novel points to the major plotline of a selfhood quest, typical of the works written by Lessing, who is widely known for her unconventional interpretations of ‘the women’s question’. Lessing intentionally depicts idyllic surroundings (Bakhtin’s chronotope) where lives a medium-class conventional family in order to subvert that very idyll and socially accepted patterns and to prove their historical and factual insolvency. The dynamic shift of the topoi from domestic to heterotopic (a room in a hotel, a room in a rented flat) in the course of the novel correlates with the symbolic stages of self-discovery and self-acceptance by the protagonist, who refuses to fulfill social expectations. The psychological line of the novel is built upon the gradual extension of the meaning of the oneiric seal image, a recurring dream about a seal, which acquires symbolic significance: the seal is wounded and almost dying at the beginning of the novel vs full of life in the end. The sequential alterations of the image of the seal reflect the protagonist’s identity transformations and imply her growing ability to regain control over her life. The image of the mirror capturing external changes in the protagonist’s appearance also conveys the meaning of accepting her aged body, thus sharpening facets of existential female experience, including the experience of aging.

Alban Berg’s Lulu as a Foucauldian Heterotopia

Michel Foucault described the present epoch as being one of space. Some of his notions of space are found in his theories on heterotopias—disturbing places of segregated otherness—which Foucault adapted to describe temporal paradigms within a social framework. This study analyzes the duality of opposing temporal planes that are presented as the empirical world and the metaphysical realm, as they inform the heterotopic space within Alban Berg’s opera Lulu. The objective is to expand on the ambiguous meaning of heterotopia and to view Berg’s opera through the seminal lens of Foucauldian theory.

Gendered Spaces Captured in Cultural Representations: Conceptualising the Indian Experience in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Spatiality has emerged as a significant component in analyzing gendered experiences, and cultural expressions reveal this complex yet dynamic relationship in several ways. While some forms of art approach it in a direct, straightforward manner, literature does it, perhaps, in aesthetically diverse ways. Arundhati Roy has foregrounded the space and gender relationship in several ways, with language emerging as the most intricate tool to depict this relationship. Her second and latest novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) is a novel that has space as a prominent character and the gender identities, depicted in this novel, are challenging and interesting, especially in the context of modern India. From the transgender identity of the protagonist who resides in the heterotopic space of a cemetery to the female characters who sustain themselves in the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, the novel experiments with possibilities using linguistic styles as the most appropriate and significant tool. Roy’s experiments with form, with regards to gendered spatial experiences, will be explored in this paper. I will work within the framework of thirdspace and heterotopia as postulated by Soja and Foucault. This paper will analyse the depiction of gender within social spaces using the tools of Cultural Studies.

Культурно-исторический феномен гетеротопии в цифровую эпоху

В работе описываются результаты исследования концепции гетеротопии, предложенной Мишелем Фуко, в современной гуманитаристике . Выдвигается гипотеза о том, что гетеротопические пространства в современном мире могут претендовать на роль идеологии в процессе формирования и управления общественным мнением. Общественный дискурс, в свою очередь представляется как инструмент, с помощью которого социальные акторы создают нефизические объекты, в массовом сознании воспринимаемые как реальные.

Refusing Shame and Inertia

Abstract In this paper, mobile communication is examined in the context of forced migration from an affective perspective using the case study of an informal migrant camp that was established in 2015 at Budapest’s Keleti train station. Drawing on concepts of migration, affect and media, I examine various news reports and social media commentary about the camp as well as the makeshift Wi-Fi network that was established there in relation to Hungarian populist politics. I posit the station as a site of contestation between migrants, the Hungarian government and non-governmental actors that speaks to the politicisation of communication technology. The conclusion points to how mobile communication provides a way for forced migrants to create a heterotopic space in extreme conditions as the migrant community is affectively moored by media practices that enable feelings of familiarity and security. These practices not only constitute a kind of refuge for migrants but also offer a form of refusal, however small, towards the shaming and inertia they experience.

Rejection of That Which is Born Into: Heterotopic Spaces in Ferahfeza

Filmler bir yandan yaşamın her alanına yayılan iktidar ilişkilerine dair uzlaşının imgelerini yeniden üretirken diğer yandan bu ilişkilerin normalliğini sorgulayan, bunları reddeden, uzlaşı duvarını çeşitli biçimlerde çatlatan ve başka türlü bir yaşamın mümkünlüğünü sezdiren imgeleri de yeniden üretirler. Bu sorgulama ve süregelene ret hali filmlerdeki çeşitli mekân imgeleri üzerinden izlenebilir. Elif Refiğ’in yönettiği Ferahfeza (2013) filminde karakterlerin özellikle mekân ile kurdukları ilişki mikro-politik bir bakış açısıyla aktarılır. Çalışma kapsamında söz konusu filmde yer alan karakterleri başka bir yaşam düşüne iten motivasyonların neler olduğu ve bu düşün filmdeki heterotopik mekân imgeleri ile olan ilişkisi ele alınır. Heterotopik mekân imgelerinin, bu bağlamda, iktidarın mekânlarından düş kurmanın ve bu düşü gerçekleştirmenin mekânlarına geçişte nasıl bir role sahip olduğu film kapsamında tartışılır. Filmdeki mekân imgelerinin nasıl bir kent tasavvuruna denk düştüğü sorunsalıyla bağlantılı olarak, bir kenti deneyimlemede terrain vague’lerin işaret ettiği düşünsel ve eylemsel evrenin izleri sürülür.

Chinese Cemetery as Heterotopia: A Case of Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery (KTCC)

With the emergence of new typologies of memorial parks and commercialisation of industries for the dead in Malaysia, what is the image and fate of older cemetery sites within the urban realm? This paper aims to re-define the perception of urban Chinese cemetery as a heterotopic space through the case study of Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery (KTCC). Using the Foucauldian notion of heterotopia as a framework for analysis, this paper studies the transitions of KTCC through time, and how it stands in relation to the society that produced it. The paper argues that the cemetery is a highly heterotopic site; it is a space of representation and a space of difference, which celebrates the disruption of space and time in relation to society. The implication of society towards the ever changing role of a cemetery, and for now, the changing progression is at the stage where the contemporary Chinese cemetery in Malaysia displays its multi-functional spatial qualities within a single site, as a space of ‘otherness’.

Europe’s Compass: Flight Discourse and Mediterraneanism in Contemporary Novels

Mediterranneanism – as an “other heading” of Europe at its southernperipheries, including and fending off the other (according to TomislavZelic) – is a new topic in contemporary literary works on refugees. Thisessay draws some lines of research, focussing on the MediterraneanSea as a narrated passage between the continents, an area of a clashof cultures, a heterotopic space, and a political hotspot of flight tragediesin Bodo Kirchhoff’s “Novelle“ Widerfahrnis (2016) and MathiasÉnard’s novels “Erzähl ihnen von Schlachten, Königen und Elefanten”(2010/2013) and “Straße der Diebe” (2012/2013).

“We Demand Better Ways to Communicate”: Pre-Digital Media Practices in Refugee Camps

This article provides a historical perspective on media practices in refugee camps. Through an analysis of archival material emerging from refugee camps in Germany between 1945 and 2000, roles and functions of media practices in the camp experience among forced migrants are demonstrated. The refugee camp is conceptualized as a heterotopian space, where media practices took place in pre-digital media environments. The archival records show how media practices of refugees responded to the spatial constraints of the camp. At the same time, media practices emerged from the precarious power relations between refugees, administration, and activists. Opportunities, spaces, and access to media practices and technologies were provided, yet at the same time restricted, by the camp structure and administration, as well as created by refugees and volunteers. Media activist practices, such as the voicing of demands for the availability of media, demonstrate how access to media was fought for within the power structures and affordances of the analogue environment. While basic media infrastructure had to be fought for more than in the digital era and surveillance and control of media practices was more intense, the basic need for access to information and connectivity was similar in pre-digital times, resulting in media activism. This exploration of unconsidered technological environments in media and refugee studies can arguably nuance our understanding of the role of media technologies in “refugee crises”.

Political discourse in the hospital heterotopia.

To what extent do we pay attention to the text and images that cover our hospital walls and do we offer any critique either as professionals or service users? In the past we might have expected to see functional or helpful instructions about where to go (or not to go) and in more well-endowed buildings, perhapswe would see some works of art, sculpture, stained glass even, with the intention to encourage, distract or even forewarn us. However,it is now common in UK hospitals, for wall space to be used asa portal for a range ofinstitutional political messages, thatconvey information about everything from its ownvalues, behavioursto advertisements for products and servicesto requirements forrule following. Michel Foucault's ideas about Heterotopic space can help us tosee that hospitals tend to fall (awkwardly) between being a public and personal health care space, and this is a possibleexplanation for the confused material culture and messages that are shared there. This paper draws on ethnographic methods to reflect on personal experiencein order to offer a critiqueof thecontemporary political discourse which has become 'literally' written onto ourhospital walls.

From Zoning Based Area To A Hybrid Space; The Transformation Strategies

One of the contemporary city`s ambition nowadays is to be more comfortable, flexible and coeval. Although numerous urban design attempts have appeared to enhance the user’s gratification, there are urgent demands to upgrade the classical public space to be more agreeable with the necessities of everyday life. Most of the urban areas after industry era are zoning based, meanwhile, have been less adaptable to daily life conditions economically, environmentally and psychologically alike. The zoning based space has a single- activity such as public or private, workspace or leisure space, etc., while the urgent demand is to look for kind of space, has mixed -activities that give it more richness, diversity, and interaction. This type of Heterotopic space has potentials, characteristics, and efforts that reconcile everyday life requirements. On another hand, it could be defined, as a smart space, which is more correspondent with technological development through applying the digital technologies involved it. This paper is an attempt to reframe the principles of creating public space and portrays the features of transforming the zoning based area into a hybrid one. In addition, it aims to implement deconstructive approach tools as strategies for enhancing user satisfaction in public space. The paper adopts a comparative approach that criticizes the zoning theory from different perspectives according to numerous situations and it accepts the hybrid space theory as a substitutional possibility to deconstruct the typical public space.

Winds of Change: Heterotopias in Nimah Nawwab's The Unfurling

This paper examines a Saudi Arabian poet, Nimah Ismail Nawwab’s collection of poetry, The Unfurling (2004). It suggests that her poetry upend traditional stereotypes of Arab and Saudi women as they demonstrate a relationship between the literal and figurative space and social change, particularly in relation to gender and culture. Thus, they occupy and define what Michel Foucault describes as a heterotopic space - a space that stands apart from others. The creation of the space allows for a new understanding of Arabic culture, particularly in relations to the experiences of women. Through a thematic analysis of the poems, the paper contends that Nawwab’s poems uniquely reflects heterotopia as they document social changes, particularly in relations to gendered shifts in the Saudi Arabian landscape. As women experience transgressive responses to social change around the world, they not only create a space that retains a strong connection to the patriarchal history of the Middle East and the Muslim world, that space in itself is a unique space within a space. Nawwab puts women at the centre of each experience, demonstrating the creation of a larger space for the female self while physically maintaining the same order of the society.