Of Commons, Heterolegalities and Alter-Temporalities (original) (raw)

Abstract

Foucault’s engagement with space is mostly associated with his concept of heterotopias. As places of otherness that do not abide to the prevailing hegemony, heterotopias seem to capture perfectly the mechanics and aspirations of the practices of the commons. The materiality of places and the social and cognitive practices of commoners combine to effect transversal openings in the hegemonic topography of law. These openings, these opportunities function simultaneously dentro e contro (that is, inside and against) the hegemonic structures, but also, and crucially, in a transversal space that is neither entirely inside, nor entirely outside. The practices of the commons can be in this respect described as a rhizomatic ensemble of heterolegalities (giving to the Foucauldian notion of heterotopias a specific legal inflection) that coalesce into an insurgent legal topography. Moreover, these heterolegalities, that is these places and practices of legal otherness, further suggest the need to operate within novel alter-temporalities that function as insurgent chronographies. In this paper I will try to describe these heterolegalities and these alter-temporalities, and to show their role as re-embodying practices, that is, practices of re-emplacement of law.

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