Spaces of Crisis and Critique: Heterotopias Beyond Foucault

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In Of Other Spaces Foucault coined the term heterotopias to signify all the other real sites that can be found within the culture" which "are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted. For Foucault, heterotopic spaces were first of all spaces of crisis, or transformative spaces, however these have given way to heterotopias of deviation and spaces of discipline, such as psychiatric hospitals or prisons. Foucault's essay provokes us to think through how spaces of crisis and critique function to open up disruptive, subversive or minoritarian fields within philosophical, political, cultural or aesthetic discourses. This book takes this interdisciplinary and international approach to the spatial, challenging existing borders, boundaries, and horizons; from Claire Colebrook's chapter unpacking the heterotopic spaces of America and Mexico that lie beyond reductive ideological spaces of light and darkness, to a Foucauldian reading of the Zapatista resistance. With essays on politics, philosophy, literature, post-colonial studies, and aesthetics from established and emerging academics, this book answers Foucault's call to give us a better understanding of our present cultural epoch.

Reviews

A fascinating compilation of provocative essays. Foucault's concept of 'heterotopia' is the departure point for many of the authors in this collection - allowing them to 'think differently' about a diverse range of issues. They are to be complimented on a sophisticated reading of heterotopia which avoids the all-too-frequent interpretation of this in terms of absolute, physical space. This allows the authors to develop and extend Foucault's thinking and that of a range of other 'post-conventional thinkers', to develop novel critiques of the present and of contemporary politics. Readers interested in resistance politics, in theorising vulnerability and in the development of a minoritarian-ethics will find this book thought-provoking. * Angharad Beckett, Associate Professor of Political Sociology, University of Leeds, UK *
When the freedom even to imagine new forms of life and political organisation is denied by the assertion that there is no alternative, the notion of heterotopias takes on particular importance. The papers in this valuable collection draw on the work of Michel Foucault and Edward Soja to elaborate the critical and disruptive force of spatial thinking. Transdisciplinary and political, the writing in this outstanding volume is a powerful demonstration of this force in action. * David Webb, Professor of Philosophy, Staffordshire University, UK *
Spaces of Crisis and Critique takes Foucaults all too brief account of heterotopias as an invitation to investigate the hidden and the overt spaces where a politics of resistance is still possible. In foregrounding the aesthetic, as an opening on to the political and philosophical, the collection poses critical questions to those who think of politics as a science. It puts in to question inert disciplines which act as boundary keepers to critical knowledge, and it foregrounds the centrality and complexity of spatiality to any thinking of the political. From Faramellis account of Zapatista resistance to Colebrooks illuminating account of the spatial metaphors of light and dark in the American political imaginary this superb book reanimates Foucault studies. More importantly it fosters critical thinking in the spaces where neoliberalism has not yet forced things to be held to account. This collection should find its way on to the shelves of those committed to the aesthetic remaking of our political imaginaries. * Mark Devenney, Co-Director, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics, University of Brighton, UK. *

Author Bio

Anthony Faramelli is a Research Fellow at Kingston University, UK. David Hancock is Senior Research Assistant at Buckinghamshire New University, UK. Robert G. White is a PhD student at the London Graduate School, Kingston University, UK.