Page 147 [147]
OCR
THIRD SPACE: AN INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATION OF SOUTH ÁSIAN DIASPORA IN CANADA in postmodern, postcolonial and urban sociology, the intercultural minority/ native cultural conflicts and the varying degree of cultural “hybridization” that occurs in these spaces. SPACES In this paper, I use the following categories: (1) First Space: Comprising of people hailing from South Asia (2) Second Spaces: Anglophone Western countries like the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand serving as host societies for the diasporic populace; (3) Third, inter-cultural spaces: A result of hybridization/intersection of (1) and (2) sees the creation of culturally hybrid transnational citizens — who in their host societies have a unique cultural position which allows them to access disparate cultural spaces of both the diaspora and the host society. Through their adequate understanding of cultural nuances of these two spaces, they serve as authentic interpreters of the diasporic culture to their hosts and vice-versa. This is culturally enunciated through the popular: (1) Indian and South Asian diasporic cinema; (2) The artistic expression of urban resident and non-resident South Asian transnational citizens. According to Ray Oldenburg’s classification, the First Space is often seen as “home”, and the Second Space as “work”!° and the Third Space is an inbetween/liminal/interstitial area formed of “ambiguity” and “ambivalence”!! — where actors/hybrids/interlocutors can create, a form of “social capital” that moves beyond interpersonal cultural and socio-economic networks restricted within South Asian “First Space” and Canadian mainstream “Second Space.” I see the construction of my arguments as a consequence of the South Asian minority perspective in the Western host nation of Canada, who have an anglophone-desi belonging (and will be considered non-francophone Canadian cultures). First Space The First Space is where iterations of culture, identity and discourses are grounded in one’s home, that is, related to native and ethnic discourses. They can be seen as neighbourhoods facilitating cultural, commercial and religious organizations/communities often referring to the discourses of the South Asian “homeland,” and they can also be seen as “ethnic enclaves.” In Canada, the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia have a significant South Asian 10 Pete Myers, Going Home: Essays, Articles and Stories in Honour of the Andersons, Oak Hill College, 2012. 1! Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, London, Routledge, 1994.
