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ARE HETEROTOPIAS STILL POSSIBLE?

D. Dziubinski, J. Kotz

Abstract

Foucault's category of heterotopia, defining the broadly understood non-normative spaces and places, constitutes one of the fundamental manifestations of the so-called spatial turn, initiated in the second half of the last century and characteristic for the great spectrum of specific research areas. Heterotopias were, in the Foucauldian world, exceptions within the structure of socially and culturally determined places and spaces conceptualized as normative ones. Today, almost half a century later, we should consider—and put as a thesis of our dissertation, whether outside enclaves detained during the previous orders, heterotopias have not dominated the entire space? The view the authors expressed stems from two fundamental premises. The first determines the consequences the progress of globalization processes resulting in the fall of spaces defined by this category into the process of self-destruction, which is expressed by their mutual overlapping and mutual dissolution. The second premise is based on the statement that heterotopia as a cognitive category makes, by its structure, a specific semiotic trap. It is realized, together with the invitation of Michel Foucault, to seek heterotopia in their proliferation reinforced by the processes of globalization; finally a large part of the space, along with the discourse about heterotopia, may be regarded as such. In other words, are heterotopias still possible, if they have become normality as specifically normative in discourse about space? There is also a special, among many others, possibility to interpret the situation from the perspective of the observer-specific distant city or a semi-distant one, which is the Central European Wroc\law. It connects in turn to the process of glocalization. The essence of asking questions about heterotopias, specified from this perspective, may be not so much questioning their meaning as a defining category, but rather doubt the possibility of their occurrence. In their work the authors undertake a discussion with the idea of Foucault's in relation to the selected architectural buildings and urban spaces of Wroc\law. In the first step the heterotopia category is analyzed in the context of its specific structure. Then the next issue considered is the ability, as an instrument, to set the filters meant to identify heterotopias in the prospects of the global and the local. Subsequently, the four specific examples are considered to illustrate these possibilities in the context of the peripheral city. Finally, the authors try to determine the potential of this term as a means of differentiation in a non-linear structure of the contemporary city.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2015/b41/s15.032

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