Reconceptualizing Third Culture Kids (TCKs) : Investigating Transnational Non-place Identity and Problematizing the Concept of Third Culture Kids

Abstract

This qualitative research is grounded in the experiences of children raised transnationally in highly mobile worlds. Traditionally in research these people have been referred to as Third Culture Kids (TCKs), however the rise of experiences which call into question the definition and use of the term have prompted the questioning and critiquing of the term. Through semi-structured interviews and auto-ethnography, this paper hopes to problematize the essentializing aspects of the concept of "TCKs" and the way in which the use of the term perpetuates a neo-colonial and neo-liberal essentialization of the transnational experience while highlighting and illuminating the experiences of highly mobile transnationals, and analyzing their potential non-place based identity formations, and investigating the positive impacts that the concept Third Culture Kids has had on these transnationals' lives.