Resourcing Culture: Is a Prosaic ‘Third Space’ Possible in Rural China?

Abstract

Recalling Tony Bennett's plea for a more ‘prosaic’ cultural studies, this paper proposes a redefinition of the concept ‘third space’ as a prosaic space of policy and governmentality. Based on field research in rural China, where cultural heritage has become a central resource in economic development, the paper argues that cultural development cannot be relied upon to produce spaces of resistance, empowerment, or ‘sustainability’. This is, in part, because cultural development tends to conceive of cultural spaces as ‘rooted’ rather than as spaces of translocality. While third space offers an attractive alternative to such a conceptualization, it remains vulnerable to the same alienating spatial abstractions as found in the practices of cultural development. The paper seeks to maintain the critical focus of third space while redefining it in more prosaic terms to better reflect the everyday governmentalized spaces of culture within which people live.

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