third space
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Sense “without cultural distinctions” coined by Indian critical theorist Homi K. Bhabha in the context of his hybridity theory.
Noun
third space (countable and uncountable, plural third spaces)
- A state or situation in which cultural distinctions do not apply, allowing one to transcend cultural assumptions.
- 2000, Jon Van Til, Growing Civil Society: From Nonprofit Sector to Third Space, →ISBN:
- Third space cannot be produced by the simple transmutation of an excess corporate profit into a charitable "gift": tainted money remains suspect unless it is transformed by a self-consious philanthropic effort.
- 2008, Living in Multiple Worlds, →ISBN, page 30:
- While some have begun to define the concept of third space, the ever-changing nature of third space theory is a constant roadblock for scholars in this area.
- 2012, Adela C. Licona, Zines in Third Space: Radical Cooperation and Borderlands Rhetoric, →ISBN, page 11:
- It is the lived condition of crossing borders and existing in the realm of both/and together that allows for the conscious movement into the creative terrain of third space.
- 2014, Arnd Witte, Blending Spaces, →ISBN:
- However, this presupposes that hybrid third spaces are not conceptualized purely as spaces of mixing two or more influences on a level playing field; there are differences in conceptual power in intercultural contacts.
- A place that is neither home nor work.
- Synonym: third place
- 2008, Larissa Hjorth, Mobile Media in the Asia-Pacific, page 258:
- For youth of Korea – where most still live at home before getting married – these third spaces operate as spaces to connect with other like-minded people.
- 2025 May 15, Jennifer Weiner, “WeightWatchers Got One Thing Very Right”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN:
- WeightWatchers meetings were a third space, those increasingly rare places that are not work and are not home.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see third, space.