Searching for a third-space methodology to contest essentialist large-culture blocks

Abstract

Here I present the third space as a methodology for contesting the essentialist large-culture distortion and colonising of both researching and engaging with the intercultural. This distortion is deep in the structure of intercultural studies and the everyday narratives that surround us as a major source of prejudice and false certainty. A third-space methodology therefore requires constant and uncomfortable deCentred questioning of the thinking-as-usual. The subsequent intersubjective implicatedness of the researcher requires this personal research history, alongside the 20 years of IALIC, of my own developing approach to the third space by means of whatever methods emerged as appropriate.