ABSTRACT
Intercultural mediation is usually characterized as a form of intercultural exchange whereby a third interlocutor arbitrates between two people with irreconcilable views. This chapter argues that intercultural mediation can also take place by way of the third position that emerges discursively between two interlocutors with incommensurable viewpoints. It sets out how the notion of ‘Third Space’ emerged from the field of postcolonial studies, and then how other metaphors such as ‘third place’ and ‘third culture’ were also developed within the field of applied linguistics. However, it has recently been proposed that the bounded term of ‘third place’ be superseded with the more fluid idea of ‘symbolic competence.’ The chapter concludes by drawing on earlier empirical evidence of the changes in the discourse of thirdness through its recontextualization within intercultural studies: despite earlier caveats, Third Space has become more associated with the idea of hybrid identity and spatialization; third culture has morphed into a more solid discourse of models and pathology; and ‘third place,’ which demonstrated the least spatialized usage, has become associated with pedagogical sites of intercultural engagement. In the last instance, the discourse of thirdness makes us question in whose interests intercultural mediation lies, and conclude that ‘difference’ prevails over ‘diversity.’
