Heterotopia is a concept posited by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe spaces that are somehow 'other': disorienting, heightened, contradictory or transforming.

Dubai is an extreme example of a new kind of post-industrial urbanism fueled by hyper-consumerism, transient populations of tourists and foreign workers and the inexorable desire to create an appetite for consumption. It's both everywhere and nowhere, a place and a non-place.