Edinburgh Napier University

  The notion of third space has been often associated with sites of struggle, ambivalence and instability (Bhaba, 1994), as well as marginality and resistance (hooks, 1990). The findings of this data-driven study point to a third space more closely resembling Foucault’s (1986) notion of ‘heterotopia’. Foucault’s heterotopia, involves a real site defined by a set of relations that ‘suspect, neutralize, or invert the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror or reflect’. Referring to both a physical and a social space, heterotopia provides a useful concept to redefine spaces of differences and incompatibilities as an affective space for new ways of becoming and belonging (Zembylas & Ferreira, 1986).

This ethnographically informed investigation, conducted over 28 weeks at a Thai university, explores the discursive construction of heterotopic space by looking at the language practices of a culturally diverse group of English conversation club members from Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. Through a turn-by-turn analysis of naturally occurring verbal interaction, I show how the participants in this study used language to create a social space where incompatible norms are actively negotiated, hybridised identities constructed and transgressions celebrated. Findings from data indicate communication strategies such as language crossing and transculturing as effective ways of navigating across differences.

Methodological inspiration draws from linguistic ethnography which combines insights from linguistics and ethnography in order to account for contextual boundedness and specificity of the phenomenon under investigation. It is argued that one of the productive ways to move the field of intercultural communication forward lies in capturing liminal and fleeting moments of transculturing manifested through talk.

References
• Bhaba, H.K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge
• Hooks, B. (1991). Yearning: Race. Gender and Cultural Politics, London: Turnaround.
• Foucault, M. (1986). Of other spaces. Diacritics, 16(1), 22-27.
• Zembylas, M., & Ferreira, A. (2009). Identity formation and affective spaces in conflict‐ridden societies: inventing heterotopic possibilities. Journal of Peace Education, 6(1), 1-18.