Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education: The rise of 'Third Space' professionals
About this ebook
The concept of Third Space is offered as a way of exploring the knowledges, relationships, legitimacies and languages that characterise those who work in less boundaried roles, and the implications of these developments for both individuals and institutions. The ability to problematise and accommodate a series of paradoxes and tensions, for instance between formal and more open-ended structures and relationships, would appear to be at the heart of working in Third Space. Individuals also grapple with the fact that Third Space can, at one and the same time, be a safe haven for experimentation and creativity, and also a risky space in which there is likely to be contestation and uncertainty.
The text is addressed to professional and academic staff who, by design or default, for long or short periods, find themselves working in Third Space environments; to those to whom such staff may be responsible, including senior management teams; and also to researchers interested in changing identities in higher education.
About the author
Dr Celia Whitchurch is Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of London Institute of Education. Between 2005 and 2009 she undertook two studies funded by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education on the changing roles and identities of professional staff, and the emergence of a Third Space between academic and professional spheres of activity. In 2010 she edited a monograph with George Gordon, entitled Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce, also published by Routledge.
