Teresa Davis - Third Spaces or Heterotopias

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Third Spaces or Heterotopias?: Recreating and Negotiating Migrant Identity Using Online Spaces Author(s): Teresa Davis Source: Sociology, Vol. 44, No. 4 (AUGUST 2010), pp. 661-677Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42857434Accessed: 29-07-2015 17:56 UTC

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DOI: 1 0.1 177/0038038510369356

Third Spaces or Heterotopias?

Recreating and Negotiating Migrant Identity

Using Online Spaces

I Teresa Davis University of Sydney ; Australia

Migrant Hybridity, Cultural In-betweens and Third Space

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subject reconstituted (from multiple cultural origins), but a cultural newness, new meaning that shatters the original pillars of established subjectivity. It creates a space that enables new identity projects to develop. These new forms have the potential to transgress and subvert established cultural identifications.

661

ABSTRACT A cybenethnographic (Robinson and Shulz, 2009) study of one friendship group reunited online after 20 years is presented.This study follows a group of eight migrant and non-migrant women living over three continents (four countries).The study uses data gathered over a period of one year from the archives of one 'e-group'.

Beginning with the notion of Babha's ( 1 994) 'third space' and cultural hybridity, the study examines the interactions of these 'in-between' subjects. The disjunctive notions of place, 'other space' and time are examined within this online site. The Foucauldian idea of heterotopias is offered as an explanation of this online 'other space' and of the migrant experience.

KEYWORDS cyberethnography / heterotopias / third space/ transnational



662 Sociology Volume 44 ■ Number 4 ■ August 20 1 0

Babha points out that this state of cultural 'betweenness' occupies an

... in-between space which provides the terrain for elaborating strategies of self- hood, singular or communal - that initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration and contestation ... it is in the emergence of these interstices - the overlap and displacement of domains of difference that the inter-subjective and col- lective experiences of nationess, community interest or cultural value are negotiated. (1994: 2)

It is in these interstitial spaces that cultural hybridities are formed. Here, suggests Babha, is the site where the post-colonial subject is produced. He challenges the historiography of colonialism and presents the 'third space' as one within which new hybrid forms rise up to disrupt the established genealogical path of cultural origin, precisely because it questions the temporality, history and therefore the meaning of such cultural givens.

For post-colonial scholars like Babha, the historical aspects of identity are the focus of cultural production. Lefebvre (2002) and Jameson (1981) add the dimension of space to this dialectic. They seek to spatialize the site of such cultural production. Jameson insists on 'placing' histories and social identities within a spatial context. Lefebvre argues for the inclusion of 'space' as a key dimension in cultural production. Thus, space as a site of production and the outcome of production of culture links Babha's work to these authors.

Soja links these scholars in his model of the 'dialectics' of being. He shows how spatiality is seamlessly interwoven into the warp and weft of history and sociality in third spaces of cultural production to create the multi-dimensional hybridity so characteristic of postmodern culture. His work illustrates what Babha described as:

... what must be mapped as a new international space of discontinuous historical realities is, in fact the problem of signifying the interstitial passages and processes of cultural difference that are inscribed in the 'in-between' in the temporal break-up that weaves the 'global' text. (1996: 310)

Related to Lefebvre's spatialization and Babha's development of the idea of 'third space' is Foucault's idea of heterotopias. He identified heterotopias as being 'of other places' (des espaces autres ). 'Heterotopia' is originally a medical term defined as 'tissue that develops at a place other than is usual. The tissue is not diseased or particularly dangerous, but merely placed elsewhere, a disloca- tion' (Johnson, 2006: 77).

Foucault provides many examples of heterotopias while stopping short of precisely defining it. In his discussions of what constitutes a heterotopia, he uses the example of children's imaginary spaces. He suggests that an actual 'real' play area or space becomes an imagined world for the child, the one place shifting across many imaginary places and several temporalities in the course of the one imaginary game. It may be a long ago fairytale castle, a space ship in futur- istic narrative, or may encompass several 'real places' - the Amazonian jungle, the Egyptian pyramids, a race in LeMans, etc. Thus a real place becomes an imaginary space which encompasses several real and imagined places of past,



Third spaces or heterotopias? Davis 663

present and future: an imaginary space which reflects real places of life and yet is a 'relational space' having meaning only in relation to or in a contrapuntal sense to existing or imagined places.

Foucault presents the heterotopia as a relational space to Utopian spaces. He suggests that heterotopias are 'like utopias'; these sites relate to other sites, they both represent and invert them but unlike utopias they have to be 'enacted' or practised. Thus, for Foucault, heterotopia is a spatio-temporal idea, illus- trated in today's regulatory institutions of prisons, homes of the aged, and in transitional heterochronies such as carnivals and fairs. Museums encapsulate such heterochronies and heterotopic qualities, snap-freezing time, people, things and events. Heterotopias have a mirror-like quality of reflecting, yet refracting, distorting and inverting images of space and time. It is Utopian, yet questioning of the very utopia it reflects, reflecting both what are real places and what are imagined ones.

Johnson (2006) points out that most Foucault scholars assume that these heterotopias are spaces of 'resistance' and of possible subversion, in the sense that Babha's third spaces are meant to be liminal and therefore spaces for the marginalized to speak from, to question and challenge. Heterotopias 'unstitch, undermine and transform utopias' according to Johnson (2006: 85). However, while Babhha's third space is explicitly defined as a space from where resistance and subversion are born, especially in relation to cultural dominance, Foucault's heterotopias are not explicitly such sites of resistance.

Hetherington (1997: 41) suggests they are similar to third spaces by describing them as 'sites of marginality that act as postmodern spaces for resistance and transgression'. However, Foucault himself describes them as:

. . . heterotopias in this way light upon imaginary spatial fields, a set of relations that are not separate from the dominant structures and ideology, but go against the grain and offer lines of flight or echoing remarks about Roussel 'passage which is an enclave'. (Foucault, 1987: 76)

It is within these contexts of hybridity, space and identity that I examine an online space where eight women of South Indian origin discursively construct and recreate their cultural existence.

The Online Migrant E-group

The site chosen for exploring chronotopic and trans-spatial aspects of the migrant consciousness was a group of friends reunited online 20 years after leaving university in southern India. Most currently lead migrant lives in the United States, Australia and Hong Kong, though the group also included two non-migrant members. Entering the group with the permission of the members, and as a friend of one of the members when the group had been in existence for a year, I used data from the year prior to my joining the group (i.e. a year of archived interactions was analysed).




This online group seemed ideal to explore, for many reasons. The migrant membership across three countries made it a unique context in which to study the migrant consciousness and its articulation (see Table 1 for participant profiles). The online nature of the interactions introduced elements of disparate temporal and spatial zones. The e-group format provided multiple data sources: asynchronous postings on discussion topics; photo albums with visual elements; and synchronous chat sessions.

Cyberethnography/Netnography as Methodology

In incorporating a 'transnational lens' (Levitt and Jaworsky, 2007), I have included non-migrants as well as migrants in the sample. I have, as Levitt and Jaworsky emphasize, looked for newer methodological perspectives that 'consider the multiple sites and levels of transnational social fields beyond just the sending and receiving country, rethinking assumptions about belonging, and trace the historical continuity of these processes' (2007: 142).

Table I Participant profiles

Age Occupation Geographical location Demographic description

R Accountant Connecticut, USA Middle class, married, two young 44 years children in primary school. In the

USA over 20 years. UR CFO of corporation Virginia, USA Upper middle-class, married, one 43 years child in university and another in

high school. In the USA for over 20 years.

G Runs own business New Jersey, USA Middle class, married with one 44 years child in university and another in

high school. In the USA for over 20 years.

PU IT tech support Sydney, Australia Middle class, married with one son 44 years manager at university and another in high

school. In Australia for two years, in Chennai before that.

J Market research Sydney, Australia Middle class, married with one son 44 years firm partner in high school. In Australia and

New Zealand for 1 5 years. P Accountant Hong Kong Middle class, married with one son 43 years in university. Lived over 20 years

in Hong Kong. M Runs own HR Chennai, India Upper middle-class, married with 44 years training firm child in high school. Has always

lived in Chennai. PO Primary school Mumbai, India Middle class, married with 43 years principal university-aged child. Lived in

Chennai and Mumbai.




Ethnographic traditions of fieldwork are being extended into the virtual world in growing and evolving ways as ethnographers move to newer sites of communities, cultures and subcultures. Cyberethnography as a method has grown as ethnographers have gone online to study new communities (Robinson and Shulz, 2009). Since the 1990s this adaptation of ethnographic tools for online sites has helped to understand how people present themselves in real life and in anonymous spaces, or engage in performative identity projects (Turkle, 1995).

Robinson and Shulz (2009) point out that cyberethnography is particularly suited to examine online and offline practices. Sociologists should recognize that new media are not just instruments in creating 'alternate realities' but have very real outcomes on shaping the 'intersubjective realities' and are 'increasingly and undeniably central to the way we communicate as individuals and as collectivities' (2009: 696).

Kozinets (2002) has suggested guidelines for the traditional application of ethnographic methods in an online context. Use of the rigorous guidelines he recommends combined with traditional ethnographic methods, recognizing 'unique online contingencies' (2002: 63), have shaped this methodology. Thus, the exceptional accessibility to the group and the changing field shaped the study procedures as they would have in any traditional ethnographic study.

Gaining Entrée

The entrée to this group was serendipitous. The group had existed for some months following a 20-year university reunion (origin event) when one of the members spoke of this group to me. Offline exchanges with this member about the group for a few months afterward evoked in me an interest in the group's activities. She then invited me into the group as an observer and interested possible participant. Thus, I became an observer with access to archived postings from the previous year (when I had not been a participant).

Gathering and Analysing the Data

I gathered data by accessing archived messages and postings as well as material posted in the files, photo albums and the group calendar. I chose a data set of 12 months' worth of interactions, picking the number of messages to be included from the archive that counts the number of monthly posts.

I coded messages by topic and arranged photos and material from the files chronologically according to post date. I first sorted and identified themes from those suggested by discussion threads. Then I coded the themes manually and intuitively, as I felt I could better evaluate the data and the inherent meanings of the interactions.

Providing Trustworthy Interpretations While the anonymity of the internet allows people to participate freely and transgress boundaries that they may not cross when being observed in a traditional



666 Sociology Volume 44 ■ Number 4 • August 20 1 0

ethnographic study, it cannot identify (real) demographic markers of the participants (Kozinets, 2002).

Additionally, the focus is on textual interactions, not physical exchanges where meaning is drawn from the spoken word, expressions and gestures, etc. Thus, interpretation of purely textual data requires extra care.

In this case, physical access to one member of the group ensured that the interpretations could be cross checked and validated (member check). This is in line with Pascoe's (2007) argument that identity work is often multi-modal, encompassing both online and offline interaction.

Observing Research Ethics

The tension surrounding disclosing one's identity as an observer is central to netnographic ethics. Kozinets places netnographers in the slightly unsavoury category of 'lurker' (2002: 65). To disclose one's identity could taint the data, while not disclosing it would be ethically unacceptable. I avoided this conflict by using data archived prior to my joining the group.

A Heterotopic Space

This site and space described can easily be seen as a 'third space' where cultural 'in-betweens' begin to assert their new forms. However, unlike Babha's (1994) third space, this is not explicitly a site of resistance to the dominant cultural hegemony. While we see threads of interrogation of the mainstream and a contrapuntal weaving of alternative identity meanings, we see more self-reflective construction than resistance as Babha (1994) may define it.

In a complex warp and weft of time and space meaning is built, sometimes from the Utopian past, sometimes from a dystopian present, moving through multiple places - creating a patchwork not of 'new form' so much as using of old patches with newer scraps of meaning. Finally, it becomes a colorful if complex quilt of heterotopic tapestry, which contains elements of past and present, of local and transnational, of resistance and mimesis.

Heterotopias Online

This online group appeared to be in the nature of a 'heterotopia' - not just a cultural space where migrants with unique cultural voices exist in between cultural identities.

Foucault in Of Other Spaces spoke of heterotopias as:

Places of this kind are outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indi- cate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias ... starting from this gaze that is, as it were, directed toward me, from the ground of this virtual space that is on the other side of the glass, I come




back towards myself; I begin again to direct my eyes toward myself and to recon- stitute myself there where I am. (1986: 24)

This online forum is an 'other space' that allows for the creation of a heterotopia built primarily on the warp of nostalgic, Utopian longing for the homeland, but where this chronique is criss-crossed by the weft of present places embroidered with the recreated social and cultural practices of another place and time.

Characteristically, Foucault imagined a systematic description of heterotopias, not a rigorous definition. In light of the six principles of heterotopias offered by Foucault, I examined whether this online group bears the hallmarks of a heterotopia (Purdy, 2005). Foucault suggests that heterotopias come in many forms. I place this online group among the spaces of displacement (of migrants, of refugees). Occupying a space which is a collage of the deterritorialized, weaving threads of the past and present, shifting between places, this space exists in the imaginings of the migrants. This space is heterotopic in Foucaulťs sense of the word.

The purposes of heterotopia change to suit the need of the moment. At one point the group is a space for recreating cultural practice (e.g. celebrating go/«), operating as an ethnopia, a mimetic function to help culturally isolated migrants reaffirm, sometimes resist, identity myths. At other times it serves to recognize dystopic realities (e.g. culturally alienated but model migrant). The heterotopic raison d'etre changes as the needs of the group shift.

Foucault also suggests that heterotopias represent (in one space) several sites that in themselves would not be compatible. This 'other place' opens win- dows to several real and imagined sites. The real, nostalgic, anthropological place, 'charming Chennai', is a thread running through the fabric of the narra- tives. Other places are present-day United States, Australia and Hong Kong. These are real locales for residents but imagined for the others - as when P of Hong Kong said, 'when I see pictures of snow, it looks so lovely and me swel- tering here, I wished I could swap places'.

Heterotopias are a window onto heterochronies - spaces where periods of time are captured - rather like a museum. In this group, photo albums are an example. There are individual albums to which each member posts present-day pictures. However, the album Then and Now contains pictures of the members 21 years ago at university and a set of school pictures in which members appear, suspended in time and youth.

Finally, Foucault argued that the role of the heterotopia is to create opposition to real spaces. Heterotopias, in a sense, are the other side of the mirror. This group, with its discussions of the conflict and contradictions (unlike members' real, middle-class lives of order and routine), provides a space for members to transgress. In the following sections I present threads in the online data that best display aspects of such a heterotopia.

Three particular themes emerged from the interactions of the group: first, the recreation of cultural practice appeared in most of the interactions, particularly in the documenting and detailing of everyday life; second, I observed the recreating or maintaining of cultural identity myths; third, the interpénétration




of the nostalgie past with present reality and its fore shadowing of the future created a complex quilt of Utopian longing and present dystopic fears - a single online space, woven across multiple real and symbolic spaces, creating a spatial-temporal quilt of migrant existence.

Nostalgic Cultural Practice (Ethnopias Created)

This was an urgent theme in early postings, then tapering off, but reasserting itself now and again over the course of the year. It was strongest among the migrant members (as compared to the non-migrant members).

Preparing food for the family became a loving description of the 'maintenance' (Penaloza, 1994) of the cultural practices of origin. The sense of triumph and cultural competency demonstrated here speak as much of the assimilating migrant as of the traditional cultural self. Despite her demanding corporate position and success, UR (also a traditional Indian Brahmin wife and mother) makes the time to cook shudha (pure) vegetarian food for the family. Note the specificity of the dishes mentioned, use of the traditional Tamil names, and how favourite foods are remembered and cooked.1

I knew this week would be hectic so last Sunday made food for the whole week; keerai molaguttal (a favorite, so I make it every other week); banglore kathrikai sabji, samb- har with different kashnams, rasam, brodili curry, etc. I did not like cooking for so long on Sunday. Also made Adai for lunch, took a nap at 3 and at 4, my doorbell was ringing with the slokám class kids! (UR, Virginia, 16 September 2006)

The recreation of religious and cultural rituals was seen again in a thread on Navarathri/Goluy a southern Indian festival of nine nights that culminates in a ladies' social night of festivities when women set up a go/«, or a display of dolls and decorations, and visit one another. The following thread demonstrates a complex recreation of religious tradition. The ritual is virtually performed into being through the visual detail of the narrative.

In this exchange, P, in an attempt to recreate the ritual, checks with the others about the correct time, calculated according to the Tamil calendar but unclear because of the multiple time zones across which the group operates. The recreation of the culture of origin is interwoven with the local.

Regards Navrathri do we arrange the koolu [display of god figurines and decorations ] on Friday right or is it because of the time diff you said Thursday? Do you do any special poo ja and your friends come over fr Manjai kumkum I have to set up the koolu so checking out exact day. Its going to be hectic 10 days, we have morning poo jas starting at 7.15 we chant Lalitha Shasarnamam and all of us are back to work at 9. I will invite my friends next weekend cos Oct 2 is a holiday - China national day celebrations. (P, Hong Kong, 19 September 2006)

UR responds, acknowledging the inaccuracy (time is critical to Hindu ritual), and describes her own plans.

Sorry, it is not Thürs. We arrange the kolu on Friday, it starts Saturday. It is good you do the poojas. Is there a temple nearby? Or temple is a 45 minute drive. I jusi do stuff at home. I invite our friends on Friday evening; have the singing session




then say the Mahishasiri marthanam stothram (I taught this to the kids) and then I serve dinner. (UR, Virginia, 20 September 2006)

PU, who very recently migrated to Australia from India, reaches across two places and different versions of the ritual. She first describes what she would do in Madras, acknowledging her mother's influence in the morning puja and prayers. She then affirms her intention to recreate this ('Here I will still do ...'):

Every morning I do the vallakku pooja [ritual of lighting the lamp ] with lalitha sahasranamam and soundarya lahari. everyday which i took from my mom. Here i wl still do the pooja in the morning and say my slokams [generic term for Sanskrit religious chants] (PU, Sydney, Australia, 21 September 2006)

UR takes her real-world recreation into the virtual other place by actually sending out an invitation to the online group, despite the fact that the closest member lives inter-state.

Hi all: Attached is the invitation to Golu at our house on Friday, Sept 29th. Please RSVP by Tuesday Sept 26th giving number of folks who will come.

Thanks, (UR, Virginia, 26 September 2006)

In this exchange P enters into this other place game and comments on the invitation itself, about 'lov[ing] to come' but 'may be not this year'.

Was hectic on Sunday I had invited people for manjai kumkum in the evening then I had people asking to come in the a'noon so made some puliyodarai curd rice and rasam with potato curry for lunch. For evening I made sundal, kesari and thair vadai Enjoyed meeting e'one, but very tired.

I liked the Devi [goddess] picture in the invitation - very nice, would love to come may be not this year. (P, Hong Kong, 26 September 2006)

R is a little skeptical about this need to cling to tradition; however, in the face of the majority she admits she is different and even 'back home' was not very involved. The reference to the others' meticulous following of ritual practice and the self-analysis about her own lack of interest in the ritual are self-reflexive. This theme maps onto the hyperculture identity position that Askegaard et al. (2005) describe. In this 'hyper' form, migrants adhere to practices of 'home' with much more zeal than do non-migrants at 'home'.

I think all these festivals have taken a bigger meaning to all NRIs [nonresident Indians] - maybe it connects them to their childhood /family and brings back memories of home land - I have always been so removed from all this even back home that I bet I will feel like a fish out of water not knowing what to do - whatever makes u happy do it is my mantra - (R, Connecticut, 26 September 2006)

UR describes the occasion in detail - pointing out that the food was prepared and served in the correct manner (home made, vegetarian). Singing of the ritual and the last-minute cleaning up is reported, focusing on strict adherence to traditional practice, despite the foreign context and the difficulties of maintaining such practice (e.g. the cleaning lady not turning up and having to clean up herself).




Thanks for your wishes. My kolu party went off well. After the singing we had dinner. I had made Bisibella, Rasam, Carrot kossumalli cabbage poduthuval thair chatham chundal and payasam. 52 people showed up. I was exhausted. I had asked my cleaning lady to come so to clean up after I had cooked; they called me at 4 and said they could not make it. (UR, Virginia, 5 October 2006)

P has looked at pictures UR posted and comments favorably on UR's clothes and golu display in the way a visitor to a real-world golu would do. In so doing, P enacts a virtual version of the traditional neighborhood ritual.

UR wonderful pictures, lovely kids and a beautiful house. Golu is so cute and you are wearing a beautiful saree - gold with black looks good. (P, Hong Kong, 8 November 2006)

This entire thread is interesting because very little is contributed by the non- migrant members. For example, M from Chennai sends a brief account of her go/«, but it is more about her teenage daughter than about the ritual:

happy navarathri celeb. I had called a couple of people home for the traditional vethalapaku - nothing elaborate. Was invited over too, and visited everyone on one day-one shot. S tagged along, dreaming, wearing a bright blue lehanga with-all the works, i caught her looking at the mirror quite a few times and could not help smil- ing. (M, Chennai, India, 29 September 2006)

Askegaard et al.'s (2005) notion of hyperculture, a kind of compensatory exces- sive culturalness - not a rejection of the 'new' cultural context, but something like 'cultural one-upmanship' is seen at play here. As if by such adherence to ritual one could be more 'Indian' than the non-migrant Indians.

Here we see not the hybridity which 'unsettles' and 'subverts' the cultural authority of the dominant (Babha, 1994: 102-22), but one that clings nostalgi- cally to a 'purity' of cultural practice that non-migrant contemporaries in India no longer practice. Here then appears a certain 'ethnopia' of longing but it is a scrap, stitched into a very complex image of existence. Of resistance to either cultural script, other than in the 'inverted' sense one sees little. A patchwork quilt of practice is beginning to emerge - not so much a third space as a heterotopic criss-crossing of time, space and practice.

The Model Migrant or Ugly Desi : Negotiation of Desired and Undesired Migrant Identity Myths (Mythopias Negotiated)

The angst of the migrant identity was also apparent in group interactions - the need to be the model migrant while not being an aggressive 'newcomer' was clear in one thread. G refers to an ongoing discussion about pushy Indian migrant parents. R explains that she is determined not to be like 'those desi [migrant Indian] parents.'

meant to post N's prom pics this weekend, but ended up doing graduation parties. I was thinking about you at the party - our friend's son graduated from Columbia, got an offer from Mackenzie, and is off to Boston and trotting the globe with a



Third spaces or heterotopias? Davis 67 1

6 figure salary. Anyway, was a typical desi party - parents bragging about how much their kids have accomplished. One woman was talking about her son getting into CalTech, MIT, Cornell and Princeton and he chose to go to MIT. Couldn't take it and left after some lame excuse. (G, New Jersey, 29 May 2006)

UR, thinks differently, seeing the migrant Indian community as a supportive one that helps its children achieve their best. The tension between these two participants (R from Connecticut and UR from Virginia) about this 'model migrant' myth can be seen. Her Utopian perspective as a successful migrant who still keeps the cultural traditions is reinforced by the American myth of the Asian as the 'model migrant'.

One thing I must say to you all at the risk of getting you all mad at me: I really don't like the 'desi' bashing. Hey we are the desis. There is nothing wrong with being motivated, doing your best etc. We each do what we think is best for us and the kids. Those comments just turn me off because I dont see my Desi friends that way and I know enough Americans who are equally aggressive and motivated. (UR, Virginia, 30 May 2006)

This was in direct opposition to the negative picture of migrant experience described by R. In her response, R first conveys her disgust at this pushy migrant parent and then makes her position clear as a parent of 'average' children by defining herself in opposition to the pushy parent. However, she also reveals her own uncertainties when she speaks of how she shows 'all this means a lot to me'. This conflict is reinforced when R inquires if UR's son's magnet school is in Newsweek' s list of top 50 schools, following this with a statement about believing in the public school system. R's dialogue captures this con- stant migrant conflict.

I know UR does not like to hear about all this - but certain people bother me - met this indian woman whose daughter is 5 years old -she quickly pointed out how the elder one is going to GU this year - she then proceeded to tell me that they are going to 'try' out the public school for the youngest, they have convinced the school to put her in 1st grade - she's only 5 - and that with the others they 'pushed' them very young and they are doing fabously well so in other words, - pushed is the key word here and I am like what-ever missie - let ur kids join the long line of geniuses and my kids join the short line of average kids - S tells me the reason I am a magnet for all this crap is that I portray that all this means a lot to me..., read an article about the best public schools in the US and I think ur school came in the top 50 schools - do ur sons study there? - 1 am firm believer in the public schools sytems ciao. (R, Connecticut, 30 May 2006)

UR challenges this distancing and rejecting of the migrant community of which they are a part. She points out with some irony that she is reinforcing the stereo- type of the model migrant by talking about her own son's achievements and gives a detailed explanation of why her son's school does not appear on the Newsweek list.

Hi R: You do know me; yes I get upset with the desi stereotyping. I am sure anyone would be proud if their child got into Caltech, MIT and Princeton. Heck, I would




be jumping with joy if this happened to my kids. On that, something I want to share (brag?); A just got a Caltech Award for innovation in science. His school counselor nominated him as a kid who had creative solutions and he got this award from Caltech. R, the article mentioned, I showed it to A and said how come it does not list your school; he showed me the exceptions to the list, certain schools were not listed because nearly all their students take the [advanced placement] exams and score high on the SATs. (UR, Virginia, 30 May 2006)

Finally, R capitulates and ends the discussion, assuring UR she is not wrong in feeling proud about her child's accomplishments and it may be her own anxi- eties that cause her to take this perspective.

- just one thing - talking about one's child accomplishments and bragging is different - bragging is when u talk about them to total strangers and i find this a lot with desis - have u all thought about how hard it is for parents like me whose kids are just plain average - I am sorry but I have been blessed with normal kids I feel I have failed somewhere and the world is going to be harsh on my children becoz they were not the top of the heap. I really don't know how to express this feeling of angst I have whenever i hear such talk. (R, Connecticut, 30 May 2006)

This whole thread encapsulates the conflicted response that the Indian migrant in the United States feels in recognizing and yet recoiling from the model migrant myth that exists in the dominant cultural discourse. The model of high- achieving kids and successful migrant parents is presented as the norm (Prashad, 2001). Both G and R try to distance themselves from this desi model but reveal their anxiety about wanting to belong if they can. R is especially emphatic about being different and in the average minority, but at the same time she articulates, 'I feel I have failed somewhere ... because [my children] are not the top of the heap.'

Here the questioning of the model migrant myth is 'interruptive, ambivalent and uncertain' (Werbner, 2001: 136). This tentative questioning or rejection of the 'myth' of the model migrant hints at the notion of possible alternative meaning.

Recreation of Nostalgic Place (Utopia Revisited or Dystopias Uncovered?)

The raison d'etre of this online group was the place of origin (Madras/Chennai in southern India). Nostalgia for this anthropological place was a very strong thread that tied the group together and references to the happy times when they were all at university abound.

In early 2006 the messages centered around this nostalgic past place. At the end of the following passage, for instance, R suggests that those were simpler, happier times in a clear utopianizing of the past and 'home'. Some discordant notes are sounded as well, presenting a contradictory image:

I can see us all meeting outside those steel gates- remmembr 12b... the little canteen with sarnosas and tea? Cutting class to go to the movies. It was all simple- nowe have big houses and cars and successful jobs, but are we happier than then? All I could think of is coming here, but not so sure now! (R, Connecticut, 27 May 2006)




UR joins in this trip down this 'imagined locality' (Jain, 2005): Yeah- it brings back memories- trying to find a place on the bus! The 12 b would pick us up one by one. So hot and sweaty in starched cotton - P in those lovely cotton sarees and V in those daringly cut blouses! On the way back we'd get off in L, but then M,V,J and I would stop and chat at each corner and 'drop' each other off (UR, Virginia, 28 May 2006)

The nostalgia was evident in many forms and in many of the threads. Every time one of the group visited India, there was a peak of excited messages about the visit. A complex moving back and forth between a Utopian longing for the past and the realization that that place has now changed irrevocably. The 'I wish I were in Madras' was offset by 'its all so different now'.

The migrants meeting with two non-migrant members wrote back to the rest of the group, and posted pictures of the reunion.

It was great, and never felt a trip to India could be so much fun. Met M and P on Fri before I left. So wonderful to see P after all these years, and more wonderful to be all connected. We met at T L, and M said it's so weird to meet in a decent place, I guess she would have liked to meet at the goli soda potti kadai [little kiosk shops] across from M!!! (G, New Jersey, 28 February 2007) P must have started the countdown for your trip to chennai. I really envy you. look at me, just five months have gone by and i feel chennai sick already, truly it has its own charm, am going to miss the december music season (PU, Sydney, Australia, 8 November 2006)

PU refers in many of her e-mails to 'warm, singara Chennai' (warm and beautiful). P: - so nice of you to write when u are on vacation - I will not recognize madras when I go - I will start crying for it will bring back memories of childhood when life was simpler - water flooding during the monsoons, schools out, wading in dirty water, rickshaw rides, waiting in the hot sun for a crowded bus - 1 look back and wonder how I managed to survive - if my kids are in such a situation, I bet they would not survive - have a safe trip back home. (R, Connecticut, 3 March 2007)

The reaction from R is evocative of the extreme nostalgia of one who rarely returns, as she had not visited India for 10 years. The very visual picture of hot days and monsoon rains and the reference 'when life was simpler then' have all of the hallmarks of the rather isolated migrant who longs for the nostalgic homeland. But at the end of the message she muses 'I wonder how I did it all and still managed to survive' and ends with a cautionary 'have a safe trip back home' (to the United States). Where is home? R questions the dangers of the utopian/dystopian homeland.

P speaks dispassionately of the paradoxes of modern-day Chennai and reports back to the others online (a non-place) about Chennai (the anthropological and not-so-utopian present-day version):

R, Madras has changed so much - shops and hotels but no changes to handle the increase in traffic or population. So many malls, hotels and shops - N, K and NH have opened many of outlets. Then the chain stores like N, F and the latest entry is R Fresh offering vegetables at low prices. People are enjoying themselves and spending




which is optimistic on other hand the income disparity, pollution and congestion is scary. I have brought a few old photographs in college, will post soon. (P, Hong Kong, 9 March 2007)

R switches from nostalgia and longing for home and now talks of the problems that economic progress has brought to India, including social division:

P! - For sure I will faint in shock when I visit madras any time in the near future - the sad part of india is that they are so busy adopting all the western materialistic tendancies but they fail to also adopt the other important things - poverty has become so bad now over there - nobody wants to do anything to improve the infra structure - why can't that guy from Infosys, Ambhanis and the Tatas and Birlas [Indian business families ] do something - I heard everyone drives fancy cars, but u still see shanties and people begging - the extremes are too glaring and I cannot accept that - we are so quick to point out the defects but will not do anything to solve it - I too belong to that shameful majority. (R, Connecticut, 10 March 2007)

The simultaneous criss-crossing of past and present, of anthropological place and Utopian place are played out within this online space that comprises a complex and rich heterotopia. Fluid spatial sites and chroniques (Foucault, 1967) encompass the entire history of this e-group, stretching back in time 20 years, yet forward to current recreation and the possibilities of the future 'when I visit Chennai'.

Here we see aspects of the 'double consciousness' of the fractured subject (Babha, 1994: 214).The self-reflexive questioning of their own nostalgia does not appear to challenge the images transmitted from the dominant culture, rather shows a patchwork of mellow past images and present paradoxes. As Johnson explains, 'heterotopias unstitch, undermine and transform utopias' (2006: 85). Following through this idea of heterotopias as being spaces that 'draw us out of ourselves' in peculiar ways, one sees here that they reflect differences and challenge the space in which these migrants may feel comfortable.

Discussion

Heterotopias rather than Third Spaces: Of Inversion not Resistance

The utopia of the homeland is an enduring notion of place in the migrant imagination. It is the idealized place of memory and imagination that in a dis- cursive time-space freeze is both the past and the future. Foucault offered the counterpoint of the heterotopia, a kind of mirror of both utopia and reality (Foucault, 1984[1967]). Purdy (2005), in his analysis of Regine Robin's writing, spoke of the 'anthropology of place', non-place, and other spaces (heterotopias) when describing the migrant's fractured and deterritorialized hybrid lived sense of place and time. In his analysis, Purdy used as an example the tale L'immense fatigue des pierres which moves in a collage of migrant existence




between four distinct anthropological places that form simultaneously utopias and dystopias of the past and possible future. All of these are encapsulated in a conversation between two of the characters in the non-place of an airport lounge. Ultimately, for the migrant, this back and forth of spatial and temporal fluidity is a 'lived' collage, wherein time and place intersect and interplay, forming a heterotopia.

Heterotopias are not in Foucault's conceptualization 'unreal'. They are:

. . . real places - places that do exist and 'which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted'. (1984[19 67]: 24)

The multiple real sites (anthropological places) in the migrants' lives are refracted, sometimes challenged, sometimes utopianized. Thus, the idea of a heterotopia lends itself to a richer explanation of the migrant experience of recreating and practising melded and contradictory identities. It helps concep- tualize migrant worlds more fully than the notion of 'third spaces' where conscious or intentional hybridity is a precedent assumption. It also brings together the dual dimensions of temporality and spatial situatedness.

The online migrant group studied herein is an example of a heterotopia with complex threads that span time and space and that itself contains utopias, mythopias and ethnopias that help draw the picture of migrant life in richer and more nuanced hues.

In many ways the question of identity and construction of the 'transnational' or 'migrant' subjectivity is one that fits Babha's (1994) notion of 'in- betweens' and hybridity. However, in examining this online space, tempting as it is to resort to describing it as a 'third space' full of the newness of in-between cultural forms, it appears more as a complex, patchwork quilt of old and new, conforming and questioning, ambivalence and mimesis which in its richness and complexity forms a heterotopia of cultural being. However, the apparent 'crazy quilting' reveals not so much disordering as patches of cultural fabric with the possibility of multiple patterns - each displaying meaning in itself.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank the participants of the study, who were so generous with their thoughts and time and the reviewers who helped shape this article.

Note

1 The following discussion thread was not a synchronous one. The postings are presented as they appear in the archive. Spelling, grammar and punctuation are as in the original postings.




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Teresa Davis

Is Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses primarily on culture and discourses of consumption, with a particular interest in the cultures of transition - migration and childhood. Address: 539 H69, Economics and Business Building, Corner of Codrington and Rose Streets, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

Date submitted February 2009 Date accepted December 2009



Documents

Teresa Davis - Third Spaces or Heterotopias