Part 1: summary
The works focus on the creation by society of several places known as utopia. These peace known as utopia or heterotopia in plural are a reflection of the perfect place as far as any society is concerned. This is because these places are tailor made by society to be the utter embodiment of peace and serenity. These places are a reflection of all the aspirations of a given society as far as the peace and serenity of this society is concerned. The main argument of this concept is that all cultures in the world tend to form heterotopias. Thus, there is no culture in the world, which fails to form heterotopia. This is because every society in the world has hopes and aspirations or rather an inherent need to have all members of the society exist in a place of peace and serenity.
This thus leads to the argument that every society in the world is inherently good. It is this inherent goodness, which fuels these societies to conceptualize such places where serenity is the order of the day. Thus, the society is capable of thriving and achieving its full potential. These heterotopias by society can, however be molded by the society in question to suit the exact context in which the society intends to apply them. These paradigms are more often than not historical paradigms of the society, which tend to incline the society in question to redefine the purpose of a given utopia to suit that particular point in time as far as a society, in question is concerned. This means that heterotopia are elements of convenience by society or rather can be molded by society with reference to the convenience of the society be it historical or otherwise.
Part 2: personal opinion on the topic
On a personal level, the concept of heterotopia is very instrumental as far as fully comprehending the mentality and emotional disposition of any given society are concerned. This is because the mere existence of these conceptual places is very enlightening into the mind frame of any given society or rather the whole of mankind in its entirety. It is also very interesting to examine the terms under which society tends to conceptualize a given utopia. These terms may be psychological, cultural, or even historic. Thus, the study of heterotopia can be very insightful as far as fully comprehending the mentality and experiences of a given society, which led to the conceptualization, and realization of a given utopia at a particular point of the history of the society in question.
Part 3: Comments about the reading
Heterotopia is very interesting also in terms of understanding the mentality of every human being on earth (Bordieu, p.12). This is because the mentality of society is merely the extension of the general feelings of individuals. Thus, the society is a magnified version of the individual. Thus, every individual seeks serenity or rather has a special place filled with serenity in his or her mental construct (Bordieu, p.14).
The work refers to a utopia being capable of juxtaposing places that are incompatible and would on a normal basis never be associated with each other (Bordieu, p.6). This, therefore, alludes to a fictional paradigm or rather construct as far as utopia is concerned. Thus, utopia is to a very large extent a fictional construct where the impossible is possible and thus peace exists in its purest form conceivable.
References
Bourdieu, P. (2005). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
bordieu, p. (2012). the Concept of Doxa.. Berlin: De Gruyter.
focault, m. (2003). Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. New York: Routledge.
h, j. (2004). Pop cosmopolitanism : mapping cultural flows in an age of media convergence. Berkeley: University of California Press.
More, T. (2009). Utopia. Raleigh, N.C.: Alex Catalogue.
