Utopianism in the Work of Zygmunt Bauman - Sociologi - Aalborg ...
Utopianism in the Work of Zygmunt Bauman - Sociologi - Aalborg ...
Utopianism in the Work of Zygmunt Bauman - Sociologi - Aalborg ...
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tised. Utopias have, however, not been entirely dissolved but thoroughly trans-<br />
formed. Present day versions <strong>of</strong> utopia are nowadays as a consequence perhaps<br />
best described with <strong>the</strong> apt term co<strong>in</strong>ed by Michel Foucault (1986) ‘heteroto-<br />
pias’ which are not non-places but are places out <strong>of</strong> place, as it were, ‘counter-<br />
sites’ and places where <strong>the</strong> waste-products <strong>of</strong> civilisation and especially mod-<br />
ern utopian civilisation are cast. Heterotopias are thus both part and parcel <strong>of</strong><br />
and <strong>in</strong>dispensable to utopias as well as <strong>the</strong>ir distorted materialisation. They are<br />
also alternative places designated to <strong>the</strong> outskirts or normalcy or <strong>the</strong> dom<strong>in</strong>ant<br />
way <strong>of</strong> life. Toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong> such heterotopias, also what John O’Neill<br />
(1993) with a colourful metaphor termed ‘McTopia’ where time is eaten away<br />
<strong>in</strong>stead <strong>of</strong> as <strong>in</strong> real utopias be<strong>in</strong>g constant or eternal, appears as a sign <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
times. To many, both heterotopias and McTopias are expressions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> so-<br />
called dystopias or anti-topias.<br />
The divid<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>e between utopias, dystopias and heterotopias is one <strong>in</strong>ti-<br />
mately dependent upon def<strong>in</strong>ition. <strong>Bauman</strong>’s images <strong>of</strong> modernity and post-<br />
modernity or liquid modernity can and with good reason <strong>of</strong>ten been regarded as<br />
heterotopias but equally as dystopias – <strong>the</strong> mirror opposite <strong>of</strong> utopias. Every-<br />
th<strong>in</strong>g beautiful can decompose <strong>in</strong>to ugl<strong>in</strong>ess, everyth<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>tended to liberate<br />
people may lead to terror and totalitarianism, everyth<strong>in</strong>g thought <strong>of</strong> as <strong>the</strong> good<br />
society may turn out bad and sour. This is perhaps an imm<strong>in</strong>ent aspect <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
critical <strong>the</strong>oretically oriented strand <strong>of</strong> his sociology, which also conta<strong>in</strong>s a<br />
more literary strand. In style, substance and artistic effects, his work is equally<br />
rem<strong>in</strong>iscent <strong>of</strong> many literary expositions and poetic descriptions <strong>of</strong> how <strong>the</strong><br />
world could be imag<strong>in</strong>ed and constructed if we discard <strong>the</strong> one-dimensionality<br />
<strong>of</strong> many modernist utopian visions and also rem<strong>in</strong>iscent <strong>of</strong> how literary writers<br />
depict <strong>the</strong> world as hav<strong>in</strong>g taken <strong>the</strong> wrong turn towards utopia and <strong>in</strong>stead<br />
ended <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> doldrums. This literary imag<strong>in</strong>ation, naturally coupled with a so-<br />
ciological imag<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>in</strong> his work, may assist as an alternative utopian strand<br />
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