The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social Ordering (International Library of Sociology) - Hardcover

Hetherington, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415114691 ISBN 13: 9780415114691

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity as it emerged during the eighteenth century through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the book argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia and heterotopic spatial practice.
The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and in its relationship to civil society and the public sphere and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all seen as heterotopia in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by a social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes and the ambiguous spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies.
The book uses these historical examples to analyse contemporary questions about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. It will be important reading for sociologists, geographers and social historians as well as anyone who has an interest in modern societies.

About this title

Synopsis

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity. Through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces of the eighteenth century, this book examines contemporary debates about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, trangression and resistance. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, Kevin Hetherington argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia. The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all analysed 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.

About the Author

Kevin Hetherington is Lecturer in Sociology at Keele University

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0415114691
• ISBN 13: 9780415114691
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176