#TCKCloseReading : Introduction to #TCKs book
Danielle and I are embarking on a longer-term writing project. Over the course of the next few months, we are going to pick apart the “bible” for global nomads, Third Culture Kids. Our intention is to get to know the text intimately, examine from a millennial perspective which parts are still relevant, which parts feel outdated, and what’s missing. Let’s have a lively conversation – every viewpoint counts!
This week: The Introduction to the 2nd edition (2009) written by Ruth E. Van Reken
Third Culture Kids is undoubtedly a seminal work in the field of global identity studies. At the crux of Van Reken’s thesis lies the notion that there is a “difference between being raised in a monocultural environment or a many layered cultural setting” (xiv). She also speaks of a “‘new normal’ of cultural complexity” (xiv) that more and more kids grow up in. Leaders like Barack Obama and his close staff indicate that this “new normal” has arrived at all spheres of influence. The tension around defining these malleable, multi-faceted, globalized identities reveals that TCKs may not continue to be so “unique” now and in the future. Which begs the question, why make a distinction at all?
This ongoing differentiation between “monocultural” and “many layered” cultural upbringings has prompted her – and co-author, the late David C. Pollock – to include “cross-cultural kids” (CCKs) as an extension of the more restrictive definition of “third culture kids” (TCKs). CCKs, like TCKs, “grow up in multiple spheres of cultural influence” (xii), but are not bound to the traditional categories of Military Brats, Missionary Kids, etc. Rather CCKs are culturally “layered” in all kinds of ways, as multi-racial, multi-national kids; international adoptees; educational transplants; kids growing up in border areas; immigrants; refugees; to name some of the categories they include in the 2nd edition.
My questions going forward in our reading are:
+ What are the differences between “visible layers of culture such as race, ethnicity, and gender” and the “often unnoticed … hidden diversity of [identities] shaped in these larger [global?] arenas” (xi)?
+ Why does “high mobility” matter?
+ What are the uses of “giving language and understanding to an experience lived but, to that point, unnamed” for TCKs & CCKs?
+ What happens when TCKs/CCKs are actually the “new majority”?
+ What if the shift in the cultural complexity of personal identities causes a whole cultural shift in how societies conceived of culture, heritage, identity and interconnectedness? Will it still be relevant to speak of “monocultural” identities then, even if some people technically still are?