ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the term “Third Space” as it relates to research in media and education. It is a concept which encompasses and describes a space in which the conditions allow for a flattening of traditional hierarchies between the social actors therein. In educational contexts, a “Third Space” can open up in a literal, physical space, such as a film-club, gallery, or makerspace, for example, but it can also be a metaphorical space in which pedagogy is designed around valuing the cultural capital and potential contributions of all social actors in the process. Social media, platform studies, participatory culture, and other related and contested areas have become familiar locations for “Third Space” research in recent years, but how might we account for human and material social actors in such projects? What emergent theories of dynamic and relational literacies might be helpful in unravelling the place and purpose of media education informally and formally? Drawing on research in recent years of learner-practices in media production projects, including those concerned with play and media cultures, this chapter offers examples of how to work in “Third Spaces” and how to theorise them and inform what we think of as “media education”.
