This is where we share our insights on the key concepts of the project, such as “third cultures”, “culture”, “sustainable mobility”, “mobile worlds”, and more. This page continues to be under development – if you have suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of the page.

We are working on a scientific article that connects the conceptualisation of third cultures to questions of sustainable and just mobilities. Once the article is published, we will provide a link to it here.

Terceiras Culturas

The MobileWorlds project explored the conceptual potential of ‘third cultures’ to unlock existing diverse imaginaries for the future of mobility (or rather in plural, mobilities). For now, we tentatively define Third Cultures as,

the combination of two or more cultures, which can be more significant to someone who has such a third culture, than a given “single” culture would be to that person. Third Cultures manifest in cultural practices and patterns of thinking that emerge from the encounter between two or more cultures. Third Cultures are usually relatively misaligned with one or another cultural mainstream, but are nevertheless aware of multiple cultural mainstreams and incorporate some of these from diverse sources.

Third cultures in this sense have great potential for creating space for encounter between convictions of como as coisas são feitas em termos de that’s just how it is and thus seeking out alternative ways of thinking. Having this potential, however, does not mean that a given third culture will necessarily realize it.

The theoretical and conceptual background of this concept is chiefly rooted in two areas of research: Third Culture Kids, and the Science-Humanities debate. Both emerged as terms around the 1970s, and both highlight challenges and opportunities in being neither “here” nor “there”, fitting no box, crossing boundaries. In the case of Third Culture Kids, or TCKs, the focus is on children who travel with their parents to temporary positions abroad, once or several times, thereby coming into contact with various national and/or regional cultures in their childhood formative years. Many benefits as well as drawbacks from these experiences have been researched. In the Science-Humanities debate, the question is broached how and to what extent the different ontologies and epistemologies of these two fields can and should connect, and what can be gained from this.

We have developed an annotated bibliography reviewing the concept of third cultures in these fields. You can find it here:

Culture

To understand third cultures, we must have some idea of what a culture is. In this project, we look at culture at first as a set of norms and values shared by a specific group, and guiding that group’s actions and taboos, that is, highlighting what is normal, what is done or não se faz. Countless resources exist on how culture can be understood and studied, where boundaries are between cultures and so on. Here we choose to study third cultures that might emerge from a huge variety of cultural connections – be they across countries, regions, continents, localities or subcultures. You might imagine the contrast between urban and rural cultures, between Latin American and African cultures, between Chinese and Indonesian cultures, between skater and hippie cultures, and so forth.

Mobile Worlds

The title of the project, Mobile Worlds, refers to “mobile” in terms of moving from one place to another physically, but also in terms of moving between ways of thinking, worldviews and mindsets. In the same sense, worlds can be various physical localities, as well as conceptual understandings and bubbles that can figure as their own “worlds”.

The project has a special interest in mobility in the sense of moving from one location to another, as it looks at various forms of transportation, or lack thereof, as well as at the impact of migration and globalisation (via the movement of people but also goods and services). But in this immobility is considered just as interesting and important as mobility.

Sustainable and Just Mobilities

How mobility can be more or less “sustainable” and “just” in view of both people and planet is key in this project. We try to understand how one can move between worlds – physical and conceptual – while also not only avoiding harm but perhaps even encouraging flourishing and symbiosis for people and planet. This means considering environmental impact, keeping in mind connections between the human and more-than-human worlds as well as between humans, and considering also justice in local, regional and global levels that have become intensely intertwined as globalisation progresses. See the reference list for several publications about mobility, by myself and other authors (namely Sheller, Ferreira, Tan, Nikolaeva).

Imaginaries

The way I understand imaginaries for this project is largely shaped by the work of Olivia Bina, especially as discussed in the article entitled “Beyond techno-utopia and its discontents” which she co-authored with colleagues in 2020 in the journal Futures (see reference list). An imaginary can entail a utopia or dystopia, but it usually imagines a future in a relatively creative way, that is, not simply as a projection of what is now, but imagining often quite drastic changes, which can be more or less desirable. Imaginaries are often shaped by various types of media, not least popular fims and social media outlets.

Planning

I understand planning as both a discipline and practice that imagines possible futures and the steps required to reach them. Planning is also usually a practice that incorporates some level of normative judgement of which such futures and paths or steps are desirable, for whom, when, where. In my view, this normative judgement is necessary, but must be made explicit, and challengeable. I am also convinced that planning does not benefit from operating within silos, as when the focus is excessively on whether something is innovative, conservative, etc. (see my paper on innovation for more on this). In the podcast Planetary Planning, I am exploring the potentials of looking at Planning from a less human-centric perspective, or at least not only human-centric, so that a better relation with the more-than-human can be achieved, for the sakes of all beings, including, ultimately, the human as well.

A selection of relevant references:

Bennett, T. (2015). Cultural Studies and the Culture Concept. Cultural Studies, 29(4), 546–568. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2014.1000605

Bina, O., Inch, A., & Pereira, L. (2020). Beyond techno-utopia and its discontents: On the role of utopianism and speculative fiction in shaping alternatives to the smart city imaginary. Futures, 115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.102475

Brockman, J. (Ed.). (1996). The third culture: Beyond the scientific revolution (1. Touchstone ed). Simon & Schuster.

Ferreira, A., & von Schönfeld, K. C. (2022). Beyond the rule of growth in the transport sector: Towards “clumsy mobility solutions”? In Post-Growth Planning: Cities beyond the market economy. Routledge.

Ferreira, A. (2024). Mobilities in a turbulent era. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Heikkila, Elli. (n.d.). Third Culture Kids as a Specific Migrant Group. SIIRTOLAISUUS MIGRATION.

Hidayati, I., Tan, W., & Yamu, C. (2021). Conceptualizing Mobility Inequality: Mobility and Accessibility for the Marginalized. Journal of Planning Literature, 36(4), 492–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/08854122211012898

Keskitalo, E. C. H. (2023). Rethinking nature relations: Beyond binaries. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Kwon, J. (2019). Third Culture Kids: Growing up with mobility and cross-cultural transitions. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 13(2), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2018.1490718

Melles, E. A., & Schwartz, J. (2013). Does the third culture kid experience predict levels of prejudice? International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), 260–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.08.001

Nikolaeva, A., Lin, Y.-T., Nello-Deakin, S., Rubin, O., & von Schönfeld, K. C. (2021). What does it mean to be less mobile? Insights from COVID-19 lockdown. Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam, WP No 52. https://urbanstudies.uva.nl/content/working-paper-series/working-paper-series-no.52.html?origin=7Lgw0jxTSDypvrJPXlepEA

Pollock, D. C., Van Reken, R. E., & Pollock, M. V. (2017). Third culture kids: Growing up among worlds (Third edition). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Sheller, M. (2018). Mobility justice: The politics of movement in the age of extremes. Verso.

Tan, E. C., Wang, K. T., & Cottrell, A. B. (2021). A systematic review of third culture kids empirical research. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 82, 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.03.002

Useem, J., Useem, R., & Donoghue, J. (1963). Men in the Middle of the Third Culture: The Roles of American and Non-Western People in Cross-Cultural Administration. Human Organization, 22(3), 169–179. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.22.3.5470n44338kk6733

von Schönfeld, K. C., & Bertolini, L. (2017). Urban streets: Epitomes of planning challenges and opportunities at the interface of public space and mobility. Cities, 68(April), 48–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.04.012

von Schönfeld, K. C., & Ferreira, A. (2022). Mobility values in a finite world: Pathways beyond austerianism? Applied Mobilities, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2022.2087135

von Schönfeld, K. C., & Ferreira, A. (2021). Urban Planning and European Innovation Policy: Achieving Sustainability, Social Inclusion, and Economic Growth? Sustainability, 13(3), 1137. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031137

Woiwode, C., Schäpke, N., Bina, O., Veciana, S., Kunze, I., Parodi, O., Schweizer-Ries, P., & Wamsler, C. (2021). Inner transformation to sustainability as a deep leverage point: Fostering new avenues for change through dialogue and reflection. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00882-y