Rethinking a third-place methodology for making sense of the intercultural

Talk by professor Adrian Holliday (Canterbury Christ Church University) in the Digital series of talks on plurilingualism and interculturality.

I will look at the methodological implications for not starting with the common yet false notion of separate, bounded national or civilisational ‘cultures’ and related nativist views of language. The biggest challenge is not unfamiliar cultural practices, language and values, but the Centre ‘us’-‘them’ essentialist grand narratives we meet and carry with us. The biggest resource is the intercultural experience we all have since childhood. A re-thought, i.e. not ‘in-between’, third-space methodology helps us to deCentre this experience to find threads of hybridity. It is a necessarily uncomfortable, critical ethnographic space where both researchers and intercultural travellers make intersubjective sense within small culture formation on the go in everyday life.

Adrian Holliday has kindly given permission to record his presentation and share his PowerPoint presentation.