ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia using Michel Foucault’s (1926–1984) concept of heterotopia. In Foucault’s writings, heterotopias are both similar to and distinct from the conditions that give rise to them. The paper undertakes a case study of one entry on Wikipedia (the entry for the “Episteme”) focusing primarily on the main entry and the talk page. The methodology is content analysis with a directed approach: data were gathered in November–December 2020. The paper argues Wikipedia can usefully be analysed as a heterotopia because it exposes the contentious conditions of knowledge production, which is not standard practice for an encyclopaedia. The article adds to our understanding by applying the Foucauldian concept of heterotopia to a specific Wikipedia entry, highlighting how knowledge is produced out of dispute and subjective discourses.

摘要

本文使用米歇尔·福柯（1926-1984）的异托邦概念分析在线百科全书维基百科。在福柯的著作中，异托邦既相似又不同于产生它们的条件。本文对 Wikipedia 上的一个条目（“Episteme”条目）进行了案例研究，主要关注主条目和讨论页。该方法是采用定向方法进行内容分析：数据是在 2020 年 11 月至 2020 年 12 月收集的。该论文认为，维基百科可以有效地被分析为异托邦，因为它暴露了知识生产的有争议的条件，这不是百科全书的标准做法。这篇文章通过将福柯的异托邦概念应用于特定的维基百科条目来增加我们的理解，