Le trottoir comme hétérotopie : exploration d’une nouvelle utopie contemporaine dans la consommation

This article aims to confront Foucault's (2001) concept of heterotopia (2001) – the physical location of an utopia – with a "new, "informal and non-institutionalized retail space for gleaning second hand items : the sidewalk during the time of bulky item collection. A qualitative survey conducted with 17 urban gleaners shows that this place may be indicative of some contemporary utopias. Drawing on six distinctive features that define an heterotopia, we show that the sidewalk 1) is both an heterotopia of crisis and deviation; 2) changed function over time in becoming now a place for provisioning; 3) is a juxtaposition of different places, places of transit and supply, but also of personal stories via those of objects and/or encounters; 4) is an heterochrony, i.e. a moment that suspends time and traditional practices; 5) is a closed space between the gleaner and the real and imagined gaze of the other; and finally 6) has a function of supply, but also of denounciation of the consumption system. The concept of heterotopia finally underscores the importance of space in the field of consumption, not only with places being the unit of the analysis, but also in the form of dialogics that these "counter-sites" maintain with more conventional forms.