In-between Space Research Articles

Forms and spatiality of street vending in informal settlements: The case of in-between spaces in Hanoi

Forms and spatiality of street vending in informal settlements: The case of in-between spaces in Hanoi

City walls reimagined: unveiling adaptive potentials of Istanbul Land Walls

ABSTRACT The study investigates the adaptive potential of Istanbul Land Walls, focusing on their socio-spatial formations, user-driven modifications, and perceptual dynamics. Employing a dual-phase methodology, the study explores three focus areas: Edirnekapı, Topkapı, and Yedikule. The findings identify typologies of socio-spatial formations and modifications, including appropriation of in-between spaces, adaptive reconfigurations in threshold spaces, and practices of everyday street vending that redefine interactions with the walls. The study underscores the necessity of adaptive urban design strategies to reintegrate historical walls into the contemporary city, which fosters responsive, inclusive, and dynamic urban spaces.

Reimagining Kyokai: Layered Permeability in Yoshiji Takehara’s Modern Residences

Traditional Japanese architecture is known for its open, ambiguous spatial boundaries (“kyokai”), which integrate nature and dwelling through Zen/Shinto philosophies. Yet modern urban housing, driven by high-density minimalism, flattens spatial hierarchies and erodes these rich boundary concepts. This study aims to explore how Japanese architect Yoshiji Takehara reinterprets traditional spatial principles to reconstruct the interior–exterior relationships in modern housing through a mixed-methods approach—including a literature review, case studies, and semi-structured interviews—verifying the hypothesis that he achieves the modern translation of traditional “kyokai” through strategies of boundary expansion and ambiguity. Analyzing 78 independent residential projects by Takehara and incorporating his interview texts, the research employs spatial typology and statistical methods to quantify the characteristics of boundary configurations, such as building contour morphology, opening orientations, and transitional space types, to reveal the internal logic of his design strategies. This study identifies two core strategies through which Takehara redefines spatial boundaries: firstly, clustered building layouts, multi-directional openings, and visual connections between courtyards and private functional spaces extend interface areas, enhancing interactions between nature and daily life; secondly, in-between spaces like corridors and doma (earthen-floored transitional zones), double-layered fixtures, and floor-level variations blur physical and psychological boundaries, creating multilayered permeability. Case studies demonstrate that his designs not only inherit traditional elements such as indented plans and semi-outdoor buffers but also revitalize the essence of “dwelling” through contemporary expressions, achieving dynamic visual experiences and poetic inhabitation within limited sites via complex boundary configurations and fluid thresholds. This research provides reusable boundary design strategies for high-density urban housing, such as multi-directional openings and buffer space typologies, and fills a research gap in the systematic translation of traditional “kyokai” theory into modern architecture, offering new insights for reconstructing the natural connection in residential spaces.

“Creativity, Innovation, Wit and Style”: Editorial Cartoons as Boundary Objects in Australia’s Journalism Awards, 1958–2024

ABSTRACT Editorial (or political) cartoons occupy an in-between space in the news media landscape, understood by practitioners and located in scholarship as works of comic art and vital journalistic outputs. Cartoons span industry and professional boundaries in their locations, conditions and technologies of production; formats and methods of dissemination and reception; and potential social, cultural and political impacts. This article considers the evolving location of editorial cartoons and cartoonists in relation to the role and mission of journalism, and their connection to newsroom cultures and news agendas. The Australian Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, which have featured a dedicated cartoon category since 1958, are used as a case study. Industry awards like The Walkleys celebrate Australian traditions of comic art and satire, and promote particular constructions of professional journalism’s value for and contribution to Australian society. Through consideration of the markers of “excellence” privileged by these awards - and the ways they are discussed, reported and celebrated in media coverage - this article argues that Australian editorial cartoons operate as “boundary objects".

Original spatial conditions impacting artist-led renovation of industrial architecture: case study in 798 Art District, Beijing

ABSTRACT Artist-led, spontaneous renovations in in-between spaces play a critical role in the renewal of industrial architecture. However, the relationship between renovation practices and varying original spatial conditions in these structures remains unclear. This study focuses on Beijing’s 798 Art District, employing field investigation, street mapping, data analysis, and other methods to examine original spatial conditions (e.g. building density, exterior wall area, plaza depth, height-to-depth ratio [D/H], industrial components, and entrance density) as well as renovation contents (e.g. building elements, artistic elements, and commercial elements). A multiple regression analysis is also conducted to observe correlations among these factors. The results indicate that exterior wall area and industrial components positively correlate with three distinct categories of renovation contents. Entrance density is positively correlated with building elements and commercial elements but not correlated with artistic elements. Building density is negatively correlated with building and commercial elements but shows no correlation with artistic elements. Plaza depth and D/H are not correlated with any renovation content. These findings highlight the influence of original spatial conditions on the renovation practices utilized by artists, offering valuable insights for the adaptive reuse of industrial architecture and supporting the sustainable redevelopment of industrial architectural heritage sites.

Cultural Identity Reconstruction in the “In-Between Space”: An Analysis of Lee’s Character in East of Eden

This paper revisits the identity reconstruction of Lee, a Chinese-American character in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, through the lens of Homi Bhabha’s “In-Between Space” theory and within a postcolonial framework. The study focuses on how Lee navigates racial and cultural marginalization, utilizing cultural performance and discursive practices to transition from an “other” to the spiritual cornerstone of the family community. This process of identity reconstruction demonstrates that Lee reshapes power dynamics by transcending racial and cultural boundaries. However, this transformation does not dismantle binary oppositions; rather, it replaces existing cultural hierarchies with a new power center. By integrating close textual analysis with postcolonial theory, this paper highlights how identity reconstruction in literature reiterates the fluidity of power relations and cultural identity, offering fresh perspectives on identity politics and postcolonial discourse.

Between Advice and Miracle

Abstract In light of the Court’s judicial function (Part 2), stakeholders initiating advisory proceedings seek advice with one or several of six types of expectations in mind (Part 3), ranging from advice as advice to advice as miracle (3.1–3.6). The failure and management of these expectations (4.1), in turn, impacts on what legal relevance the Court’s pronouncements in advisory opinion may have in other proceedings before international courts and tribunals. While they cannot be formally legally binding, they are also not devoid of legal effect. To explore this in-between space, I develop the concept of ‘persuasiveness’. It establishes a combination of content-dependent and content- independent reasons for why and under which conditions other courts and tribunals may regard the Court’s specific pronouncement in an advisory opinion as determinative for deciding their case (4.2). These insights tie back to the relationship of the ICJ’s judicial function and international law-making. Part 5 concludes.

Oombarl Oombarl Joorrinygor-Slowly Slowly Moving Forward: Reflections From a Cross-Cultural Team Working Together on the See, Treat, Prevent (SToP) Trial in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.

Reflexivity is crucial for researchers and health professionals working within Aboriginal health. Reflexivity provides a tool for non-Aboriginal researchers to contribute to the broader intention of reframing historical academic positivist paradigms into Indigenous research methodologies (IRM) to privilege Aboriginal voices in knowledge construction and decision-making. This practice requires researchers to transition from safe and familiar research environments into unfamiliar and uncomfortable spaces. This uncomfortable space is often referred to as the 'third space'-the 'in-between' space that can be turbulent and difficult to navigate. However, it is also a productive space where new collaborations are created, and ideas can emerge. This manuscript provides reflections from a cross-cultural team working on a transdisciplinary healthy skin program-the See, Treat, Prevent (SToP) Trial in Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region of Western Australia (WA). Cultural mentors guided our team to work in an Oombarl Oombarl (steady steady) way to navigate the cultural interface between familiar biomedical elements and unknown health promotion activities. Our third space was the intangible space in-between the S, T and P of the SToP Trial. Narratives were collected through semi-structured interviews and yarning sessions. All participants provided written consent for audio recording; in one instance, consent was provided to record graphically. A thematic analysis aligning with the question guide was conducted. Reflections include team members' experiences of learning the Oombarl Oombarl way, individually and collectively. Initially, most team members revealed it was challenging to work in an Oombarl Oombarl way, having to move out of the safe, familiar research environment into the unknown community-led health promotion space. This in-between space became our third space-the uncomfortable space where we relinquished 'control' of research agendas and learnt to work to the rhythm of Aboriginal communities in WA's Kimberley region. Reflexivity is necessary when working in a cross-cultural context. In Aboriginal homeland communities situated in remote settings, researchers benefit from being 'on the ground' to enable trust and genuine relationships to be developed. Visits on Country provide a rich experiential learning experience and a space for story sharing and yarning. Cultural guidance and two-way learning partnerships with cultural mentors assist non-Aboriginal researchers in understanding and adhering to cultural protocols and community processes. Allowing sufficient time to build relationships and flexible timelines are important considerations when developing research grants and protocols. SO WHAT?: Our findings demonstrate the importance of building genuine relationships and yarning on Country with Aboriginal communities to build health promotion knowledge together. Making meaning of health literacy can only evolve through two-way learning partnerships where Aboriginal people guide the process. Our research reveals a novel approach to developing meaningful health promotion initiatives and resources on Country that centralise local Aboriginal language, artwork and community context.

PhD journey in an academic ‘semi-periphery’: reflexive narrative of a Japanese student’s learning experience in China

ABSTRACT Research has explored international doctoral students’ learning and research experiences from the Global South to the North. However, few studies have investigated the reversed mobility from the North to the South. To fill this gap, this reflexive narrative study offers a Japanese doctoral student’s learning journey in China by drawing upon the notion of ‘in-between space’ and the argument on China’s ‘semi-periphery’ positionality in international higher education. The narrative shows how the Japanese student’s doctoral journey was characterised by a sense of ‘in-betweenness’ at the micro level and macro backdrop. It reflects the usefulness of examining the particularity of international doctoral students’ learning experiences at a much more fine-grained level via a more intercultural lens. This narrative provides a nuanced account of an international doctoral student's experiences from the Global North to the South.

Affordances of an in-between space of learning to foster professionalism

ABSTRACT The phenomenon of an in-between space of learning illustrates an experienced space between post-secondary education and another kind of space out of the professional institutional context that is autonomously chosen by the student. Taking into consideration that institutional learning alone is not the only means to become a professional, this study examined alternatives to be more inclusive of learning, as individuals prepare themselves for the profession. Since this space is largely unnoticed in institutional learning, there is precious little information about how experiences in the in-between space of learning can foster professionalism. In this study, data is elucidated from the lived experience of 10 students in a higher arts education institution in Singapore. In the findings, individuals identified learning in the in-between as lifelong pursuits in self-development. The space has a social character of enjoyment and freedom. Through the in-between space of learning, these diverse learning opportunities advance a new hybrid professional identity. Involvements in community engagements also gave them a greater sense of professionalism. Arising from these findings, this study argues for the need to acknowledge an in-between space of learning that serves as a springboard to rethink more about what the arts can afford to support and improve professional learning.

A case study on integrating arts activities with the loose parts in preschool’s in-between spaces

This study investigated the integration of loose parts into preschool arts education to enhance children’s learning experiences, particularly within in-between spaces and centered around music, combining visual arts and dramatic play. Conducted as a case study in a Taiwanese private preschool, the research explored the use of loose parts in art activities inspired by the song “Joyfully Setting off Firecrackers” during the Lunar New Year festival. Over 3 months, a teacher guided seven children, collecting data through interviews, teacher journals, and analyses of children’s work. The findings revealed that selecting a distinctive children’s song allowed the teacher to design engaging activities that encouraged exploration of musical elements and diverse artistic expressions, thereby increasing motivation and collaboration. The curriculum involved environmental exploration, associating loose parts with musical elements, and culminated in creating listening maps and ensemble performances. By integrating visual arts and dramatic play around music, this strategy enhanced children’s enthusiasm for creative expression and facilitated esthetic development. The study also highlighted the environment’s crucial role in shaping engagement, with a preference for outdoor activities. This research contributes to literature by underscoring the value of integrating arts education with loose parts, enhancing children’s learning experiences and fostering creative engagement.

In the cleft of a rock: Experiences in the in-between space of learning among undergraduate arts and design students

ABSTRACT The in-between space ignites learning as individuals journey from dependence on the institution to independence from the institution. This space has hitherto been holistically undefined in the context of higher arts education. The study aims to explore such experiences within the lifeworld of student scholars in the fields of arts and design. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study unravels emotional and mental states of being in-between at a higher education arts institution in Singapore. The findings highlight freedom, courage, disillusionment, discomfort, imposter syndrome, and feeling burn-out. Multiple engagements in the space in-between show a purposeful letting go of uncertainties for the sake of embracing ambiguities. This state fosters playful learning, exploration, creativity and innovation. Caught between one state and another, individuals experience different states of being at each stage of learning, which can be disempowering. Yet, individuals embrace the in-between space as a natural part of the journey in transformative learning. The results evince that being in-between was accepted as a necessary part of learning towards professionalism in the arts. The paper concludes with practical implications on how expanding a locus of learning experiences beyond the university can inform curriculum futures in higher education.

Meeting in the In-Between: Grief, Immobility, and Transformation

ABSTRACT This paper explores the in-between state of grief, when a mourner is suspended between the crushing reality of loss, the disbelief of that very same loss, and the unthinkable demand to carry on with living. Using George Saunders’s depiction of the bardo – the intermediate dimension between this life and the next – I propose the bardo as a metaphor both for the liminal space of treatment and for the mind of the grieving patient. I describe meeting my patient in the in-between spaces of Zoom, as he enacted his unsettledness in mind and body several years after the death of his first-born child. Following him in his back-and-forth rhythm, I joined him in a suspended state, caught between facing the reality of death and engaging in the vitality of life. I suggest that joining him in this way was a kind of witnessing, which allowed his tragedy to enter and ultimately transform the field of treatment. Countertransference images of peaceful death and contagious trauma are explored, highlighting the need for the analyst to tolerate vulnerability in the face of tragedy.

Reserve to Adapt: Mining Inter-Class Relations for Open-Set Domain Adaptation.

Open-Set Domain Adaptation (OSDA) aims at adapting a model trained on a labelled source domain, to an unlabeled target domain that is corrupted with unknown classes. The key challenge inherent to this open-set setting is therefore how best to avoid the negative transfer incurred by unknown classes during model adaptation. Most existing works tackle this challenge by simply pushing the entire unknown classes away. In this paper, we take a different stance - instead of addressing these unknown classes as a single entity, we "reserve" in-between spaces for their subsets in the learned embedding. Our key finding is that the inter-class relations learned off the source domain, can help to enforce class separations in the target domain - thereby reserving spaces for unknown classes. More specifically, we first prep the "reservation" by tightening the known-class representations while enlarging their inter-class margin. We then learn soft-label prototypes in the source domain to facilitate the discrimination of known and unknown samples in the target domain. It follows that these two steps are iterated at each epoch in a mutually beneficial manner - better discrimination of unknown samples helps with space reservation, and vice versa. We show state-of-the-art results on four standard OSDA datasets, Office-31, Office-Home, VisDA and ImageCLEF, and conduct further analysis to help understand our method. Codes are available at: https://github.com/PRIS-CV/Reserve_to_Adapt.

1880-1900년대 조선과 서양의 ‘만남’과 ‘식민지 코즈모폴리터니즘’

The period from the 1880s to the 1900s marked an era where the contradictory zeitgeists of “cosmopolitanism” and “colonialism” coexisted and intersected in both the Western world and Korea. The uneasy handshake between these two opposing ideologies gave rise to a hybrid concept termed colonial cosmopolitanism. This paper aims to critically explore the historical nature of the encounters (or clashes) and mutual exchanges between Western imperial powers and modern Korea during this transformative era through the lens of colonial cosmopolitanism. The analysis unfolds in three stages: 1) Summarizing the new forms and content of Korea’s landscapes that emerged following the “opening of ports” ; 2) Examining the characteristics of “top-down” cosmopolitanism as experienced by K ing Goj ong a nd K orea's elite s cholars and intellectuals t hrough diplomatic events and Western travel ; 3) Reinterpreting the alternative perspectives of “bottom-up” cosmopolitanism through the experiences of ordinary Koreans who encountered Westerners in their daily lives. Through this approach, the paper asks: what symptoms of colonial cosmopolitanism are reflected in the macro-micro-level interactions shaped jointly and separately by Koreans and Westerners? By interrogating this question through a post-colonial lens, without succumbing to the reductivismof Orientalism vs. Occidentalism, this study seeks to shed light on the shadows and illuminations cast by contemporary globalization. The paper concludes with two key arguments. First, post-colonial cosmopolitanism must act as a “connector” by dismantling the colonial cosmopolitan equation of “modernization = Westernization” imposed upon subaltern and colonized minds, and replacing it with the notion of cosmopolitan localism. Second, while the globalism of ruling elites tied to diplomacy and international relations often dissipates with the disintegration of nation-states, the emotional and affective globalism that takes root in individual hearts fosters mutual understanding through tolerance and patience. This form of globalism embodies the power and hope of solidarity, flourishing in the “in-between spaces” of unfamiliar nations, races, religions, and cultures.

When less is more: Exploring the role of silence in consumers’ identity work

Consumer identity work refers to the reflexive and ongoing process by which individuals create, manage, and communicate their sense of identity through consumption. Although the literature highlights the strategies by which consumers engage with marketplace resources, less is known about the more internal and reflexive aspects of identity work. In an environment saturated with identity choices and imperatives, our study seeks to understand how consumers’ experiences of silence—defined as the temporary absence of external stimuli—contribute to their identity work. Based on in-depth interviews, we demonstrate that the consumption of silence creates an “in-between space” in the dialectic of identification. Specifically, we show that silence functions as (a) a protective boundary that preserves consumers’ sense of agency from external demands; (b) a symbol of freedom for self-actualization used to present one’s identity; and (c) an inner space for reflection that fosters a transformative internal dialogue.

Reenvisioning ethnic-racial identity: Asian Indian American experiences.

Identity formation among immigrant communities, particularly for ethnic-racial minorities like Asian Indian Americans, is a multifaceted process. Shaped by preimmigration histories of British colonization and the caste system and the Indian diasporic postimmigration, experiences of physical and psychological displacement alongside racism in the United States contribute to the complexity of identity for this community. Although existing racial and ethnic identity models offer valuable frameworks, they may not fully capture the nuanced in-between spaces created by the intersectionality of ethnicity and race for Asian Indian Americans in the United States. Drawing from psychological critical race theory (CRT), Asian CRT, DesiCRT, and colonial mentality framework, this article proposes a unique identity model tailored to Asian Indian American experiences. Drawing from recent research, the model illuminates the dynamics of pre- and postimmigrant frictions in the negotiations and coping inherent in Asian Indian American identity formation. By using a multidimensional lens that captures tensions between ethnic identities based in sociopolitical histories and dominant societal categorizations and racism in the United States, this model aims to provide a more comprehensive and strength-based understanding of Asian Indian American identity development across the lifespan of multiple generations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Nuances of an In-Between Space of Learning Through Auditory Approaches in Early Piano Instruction.

Musical experiences in early piano instruction tend to be led by visual-based methods, limiting opportunities to develop aural abilities for children to understand music. This study examines the exploratory behaviour of music listening through auditory approaches that support visual-based methods to foster musical comprehension. Drawing from case studies of young music learners between the ages of 7 and 8, qualitative data were collected through lesson observations, interviews, game-based assessments, and performance evaluations of a prepared piece. Positive instances of recall, calibration, association, and empowerment indicated how participants perceived and strengthened the association of heard sounds. The findings further highlight the demanding cognitive ability needed to process visual elements in method books and how auditory approaches can relieve the attention to visual score-reading that enables students to better tune in to the coordination of hands with music. This discussion therefore opens the possibility for exploring how we may uncover nuanced differences in learning when we design teaching methods that straddle both auditory and visual approaches.

In-between Spaces: Unconventional Yet Essential Considerations for Defence and Security

Dr. Adlakha-Hutcheon discussed dualities between obvious pairs such as defence and security; science and technology; and the physical and virtual worlds and questioned at what point does one become the other? Whether these were truly distinct or continuums with messy middles. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand the middle/liminal spaces between pairs in order to more effectively identify and address security threats. This is apparent when one takes the example of established/emerged and emerging technologies (AI and emergence of generative AI like Chat GPT). Technologies have different impact and implications based on the context of their use, for instance the extent of positive or negative disruption that ensues upon their use. Thus, to address complex problems, it is necessary to look for disruptors in “in-between” spaces. Received: 10-08-2024 Revised: 11-02-2024

Transition space: navigating dilemmas between mainstream and minority language classrooms

Abstract From policymaking to classroom practices, educational language policy implementation is a complex process filled with a cacophony of voices. This article examines policy implementation as it unfolds in micro-level transitions between mainstream classrooms and lessons in Sámi, Kven, or Finnish as a second language (SKF) in Norway. In such situations, SKF pupils need to leave their mainstream classes to receive their language instruction. To examine these transitions, I draw primarily from ethnographic data (e.g., classroom observations and semi-structured interviews) collected over several months in public schools in a town in Northern Norway. The findings suggest that organizational circumstances construct an in-between space, which I refer to as transition space, in which classroom actors can or need to negotiate and make choices about which of the theoretically co-available classes/activities will be chosen at which times. Such choices involve dilemmas and consequences on different scales. In this study, (1) I demonstrate how (non)movements between mainstream and SKF classes are made in time and space, and (2) I propose transition space as a new conceptualization for researching micro-level transitions in educational settings.