Crossing or erasing territorial borders: Towards openness within the school space

Abstract

This chapter addresses the problem of a new school culture and school space, the formation and perception of which have changed markedly in the modern globalised world. Drawing on the theories of Lefebvre, Deleuze, Guattari and Stiegler as well as those of their interpreters, I attempt to show how space is formatted in educational practice, with theoretical insights bolstered by empirical research. The findings of that research suggest that regardless of what situation is analysed, be it virtual or actual, immanent or real, new ways of crossing borders and new styles of exploration of school space and place are presupposed, all without the necessary division of space into the Lefebvrean planned, popular or lived spaces. The Deleuzeo-Guattarian view of the holey space and Buchanan's concepts of the neither here nor there space or the non-place seem more fitting for the interpretation of students' ways of living at school and probing of the success of the open space which all the community must join. With the development of new technologies, the appearance of the smooth and pharmacological space transforms the meaning of openness, thereby questioning the future of school as a controlled space.