Hybridity of In-Between Spaces: On the Persistence and Fluidity of Political Space in Protest

How can the notion of the “in-between” contribute to the theorization of spatiality and protest? What are “in-between” spaces in the first place? On the one hand, the production of in-between spaces, thought of as inclusive, emancipatory political spaces, often serve as utopia and aim of subaltern protest. On the other hand, physical in-between spaces, such as buffer zones, border regions and strongly contested neighborhood areas, offer certain opportunity structures for protest. This observation relates to on-going debates in spatial theory. In the light of the spatial turn, space is mainly looked at from a poststructuralist angle that puts the social sphere and the human within at the center of spatial production. Recent debates on new materialism then suggest to set space itself in the focus of research and rethink space not only as a depend object of human agency, but as an agent of its own. This does not mean to disentangle space from its interference with the human and the social, but to take in account its symbiotic interdependency, producing spaces in-between. While the former perception of space as social production highlights the fluidity of spaces, the latter shows a tendency to investigate on the persistence of the product space and its influence on the social. This article aims at conceptionalizing in-between spaces in protest by asking what in-between spaces are and how their hybridity interacts with protest. Drawing on ‘classical’ key-thinkers of spatial theory as well as rather marginalized space theories from geography, post-colonial studies and queer theory, I argue that research on in-between space entails a three-dimensional approach. In a first step I explore on the performative aspect of in-between spaces, namely the production of “the-between” as utopian, political space through protest. I then turn to the functional aspect, focusing on the influence of in- between spaces on protest. Connecting both, the third aspect takes in account the ontological challenge of the in-between as both physical and social space. Applying the concept of in-between spaces to protest as social and spatial phenomena contributes to spatial theory as well as to our understanding of protest dynamics: First, by moving beyond the dichotomy of physical vs. social space and changing the human- centered gaze of recent spatial theory to a space-centered approach and second, the in-between space highlights protest in its hybridity of change and process as well as power reproduction and consistency.