Our Heterotopias

As active spaces under social context, school is an integral part of social space, constructed by the material elements and its social implications. School space is a life world made up by the known and the unknown, the real and the imagined, and twined by experiences, feelings, events and power. In view of the inadequate analysis about social implications of school space, the researcher suggests that school space can be analyzed in three dimensions and four levels. Three dimensions refers to physical spatial practices, representation of space and representational space, sociality and history of space; four levels are extension of space, occupy of space, the control and historical production of space.From the practice of physical school space, school space can be divided into three elements. They are constitutional element, symbolic element and generate element. At the same time, these elements are restricted and shaped mutually, and create a unique a space of a unique structure and feeling imagery jointly. In fact, school space is a "cell" in the "Babel Tower" of social power. It was perceived by its members through the material setting and representation, and disciplines and controls the members of the society by limiting the expectations and the possibilities of selection. The space/power of school results in discipline and regulations, connecting all occasions and scenarios, and brings forth a regional effect as well. School produces a detailed, grid, control sequent space through the classification, exclusion and grading, and complete the disciplining course of its members in school space. Although space/power causes oppression, it also brings endless creativities and possibilities. It can be dominative as well as resistance and innovative. The members in school space complete the construction of another living world through spanning and extravasations, isolation and aggregation, colonization and performance, and search their own freedom and liberation between the gaps in differences.Knowledge/power plays a unique role in the formation process of modern Chinese school space. With the introduction of School Hygiene, modern school space is not only a relationship of the symbols, but also an inserted "nodes" under the relationship of social space. The process of exploring school space in historical context is a journey of finding "strange being". School space is contradictory. It not only advocates the recognized and authoritative culture, but also reserves the dormant subsidiary culture; it brings up not only obedient individuals, but also creative "extraordinary"; it is a real place, and an imaginary "Heterotopias ".