Splendid isolation: ¡®Philosopher¡¯s islands¡¯ and the reimagination of space

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• 作者：Angus Cameron
• 关键词：Islands ; Xenospace ; Utopia ; Offshore ; Spatiality ; Metaverse ; Social space ; Boundaries
• 刊名：Geoforum
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：June, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：43
• 期：4
• 页码：741-749
• 全文大小：485 K

文摘

This paper argues that the metaphorical figure of the island plays an important but profoundly ambiguous role in the imagination of social space. The paper argues that ¡®utopic¡¯ islands have historically provided a fictional domain of experimentation that has informed the constitution of ¡®real¡¯ state spaces. From the 16th to 20th centuries this took the form of an increasingly consolidated and ¡®global¡¯ endotopia: a world, exemplified by the ¡®political¡¯ map, full of state spaces constituted as interiors. More recently, islands have served a very different metaphoric function, being used to create and legitimise spaces of exteriority - ¡®xenospaces¡¯ such as the online worlds of the ¡®metaverse¡¯ and the arcane legal/financial spaces of offshore - which in combination constitute an emergent xenotopia. The ¡®philosopher¡¯s island¡¯ (), therefore, represents a complex and polyvalent spatial form that serves to continuously and expediently redefine the nature of social space.