Intercultural contact, hybridity, and third space

Abstract

Employing a discourse approach to intercultural communication, this chapter explores the ‘traffic in meaning’ (Pratt 2002 ) that occurs when people from different cultures enter into contact with one another. In their discussion, the authors draw on work in anthropology, applied linguistics, and cultural theory. Problematising traditional notions of identity, they argue that, by conceptualising one’s identity only as attributable to one’s linguistic, cultural, ethnic, national, or social background, one runs the risk of essentialising such characteristics and making them into stable, non-negotiable features of the Self. Citing examples of intercultural contact in diverse contexts, the authors draw attention to the opportunities and dangers of hybridity and ‘third spaces’, including those that have recently opened up online. Advocating ‘truly ecological or poststructuralist methods of inquiry’, they argue that the study of intercultural contact should address issues of power and ideology, historicity, and subjectivity, within a poststructuralist framework.