It cannot be denied that when two people of different cultures engage into a conversation, misunderstanding and conflict is just around the corner. Knowing that different cultures are diverse and unique from each other, it can easily be understood that way. However, this diversity cannot be the permanent excuse to the emergence of intercultural conflict.
In the rise of globalization, people are getting more exposed to other cultures and the problem of susceptibility to conflict have been eventually overcome as the concept of cultural hybridity and third space is being understood. Third spaces are new “zones of proximal development” (Vygotsky 1978: 84).
For me, the concept of third space can be likened to the space in between a venn diagram. It refers to the interstices between colliding cultures, a liminal space “which gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representation.” In this “in-between” space, new cultural identities are formed, reformed, and constantly in a state of becoming.
However, either with effort or without, there would still be instances that the third space turns out to be problematic thus useless, or the compatibility needed to co-create a third space cannot be found. Watch this as an example:
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-trump-s-awkward-moments-with-world-leaders-985610307860
From this, we can get a glimpse of what has gone wrong and what do these people need to work on in successfully creating a “third space”. According to a study by Sutton (2013), the construction of a third culture is what happens when people from cultures A and B take cultural perspective:
- Initiating dialogue
- Discussion and debate
- Seeing the whole among parts
- Making the connections between parts
- Inquiring into assumptions
- Learning through reflective inquiry and disclosure
- Generating shared meaning
- Breaking matters into parts
- Understanding distinctions between parts
- Justifying/defending assumptions
- Persuading, selling, telling
- Attaining agreement on one meaning
- Maintaining culture
References:
Sutton, Tessa R.. (2013). Exploring the third culture building approach for effective cross-cultural interaction for Black American professionals in predominantly white institutions. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/850
Vygotsky,L.S.(1978)MindinSociety:TheDevelopmentofHigherPsychologicalProcesses,M.Cole,V.John-Steiner, S. Scribner, E. Souberman (eds), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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