thirdspace

A term discussed in E. Soja's eponymous work (1996), defined as ‘a purposefully tentative and flexible term that attempts to capture what is actually a constantly shifting and changing milieu of ideas, events, appearances, and meanings’. Soja sees firstspace as having been explored chiefly through its ‘readable texts and contexts’, and secondspace through ‘its prevailing representational discourses’. Thirdspace is to be explored spatially, ‘to improve the world in some significant way’. The concept of thirdspace can be broadly used to highlight the ‘othering’ of geographical space and social spatiality.