utopia / heterotopia

In an article entitled "Other spaces; the principles of heterotopia", Michel Foucault looks at spaces which are in rapport in some way with all the other arrangements of space in a given society, but yet in some way contradict them. 

For Foucault, these spaces are either utopias or heterotopias. Utopias are perfections of existing arrangements, either positive or negative, and have no real space. Heterotopias, those "other" spaces, are for Foucault " a sort of counter-arrangement of effectively realized utopia," in which "all the real arrangements (of space) that can be found in a society are at one and the same time represented, challenged, and overturned." He believes that "there is probably not a single culture in the world that is not made up of heterotopias." In traditional societies their most widespread forms would be the "spaces of crisis" such as places for women during the menstrual period, spaces for events that otherwise have no place. In modern societies a similar role would be played by honeymoon hotels, old age homes, or cemetaries. Foucault believes that in contemporary society "spaces of crisis" are being replaced by "spaces of deviance". 

In the postmodern world of McWorld, or Empire, non-commercial spaces have become "spaces of freedom." In this inversion, schools, churches, 4-H clubs and the few other unmarketed cultural spaces provide occasional shelter from the extensions of commercialized, branded space. (see public / private) 

What difference is there between Foucault's concept of heterotopia and his preferred objects of study, those institutions / discourses / power relations such as the asylum or the prison? Aren't they "other" spaces, segregated, surveilled jurisdictions? Is it that they are the models of modernizing society, in a relation of dominance rather than deviance? 

In addition to the particular relationship that he posits between heterotopias and the other spaces of a society, Foucault believes that heterotopias have "the power of juxtaposing in a single real place different spaces and locations that are incompatible with each other. Thus the theater, the cinema, and the garden alternate a series of spaces and times (heterochronisms) that are alien to each other. By making all times into one place, into a place that is outside time, museums and Libraries are typical heterotopias of 19th century Western culture.