While reality often deals with nature versus culture, and knowledge with matter versus mind, ethics deals with the binaries of fact versus value. The values that are developed by people are often created as a response to facts, or in spite of them. It can be difficult to describe, define, or contain values in a certain framework of understanding, so concepts of spirituality and religion are often the first of such frameworks that are used. Another way to conceptualize values, particularly in the context of environmentalism, is the idea of the utopia. Utopias represent the ideal, in all ways, meaning that any utopia would be contingent on the application of the best and “most true” values to the people there. These values can also represent a specific identity that is expected of the place.
As a parallel to understanding utopias, safe spaces through the context of identity offer a solidarity of identity that is similar to utopias. Unlike most utopias, safe spaces are often created in an effort to provide support for people who have identities that are belittled or discriminated against. Not all safe spaces are officially created, too; in an article about unofficial safe spaces created by black students in schools, Carter (2007) writes, “black student’s feel that their experiences and racial identity can be affirmed and validated in these contexts.” These safe spaces are very particular to identities that are less appreciated and are made to be exclusive in a way that protects them. This use of these places follows the term strategic essentialism, “a political tactic employed by a minority group acting on the basis of a shared identity in the public arena in the interests of unity during a struggle for equal rights.” While these spaces are not inherently political in the content of what happens within them, the presence of such space is frequently brought into the political sphere, for many types of marginalized identities.
One critique I have for the use of identity in utopias includes the use of space to promote exclusion without the use of strategic essentialism or marginalized identities. Eco-topias, for example, are often exclusive in a way that is creating a set of values and lifestyles that are exclusive to people who do not believe or live by them. The people that believe in and follow these values can have marginalized identities, but the space is not brought together through such identities. Rather, it is founded on eco-value laden identities that do not have the history of mistreatment that safe spaces are created for.
Carter, Dorinda J. 2007. “Why the Black Kids Sit Together at the Stairs: The Role of Identity-Affirming Counter-Spaces in a Predominantly White High School.” The Journal of Negro Education 76 (4): 542–54.