Marginality and the Third Space of Unadopted Plotlander Roads

Abstract

This article explores the characteristics and relationships of marginality in informal space and plotlander housing in the context of Homi K. Bhabha’s cultural hybridity and Third Space. To illustrate and examine the processes of marginalization that defined informal space in the United Kingdom, this article will critically analyze the previously undocumented plotlander community at Studd Hill on the North Kent coastline.1 Examining key aspects of this sites social origins and its marginal spatial context reveals the positive implications and challenges of informal space and social hybridization. In this analysis, issues of spatial vulnerability and marginality of plotlander communities are critically reframed as analogous to the sociospatial characteristics and innovative practices highlighted by Bhabha in postcolonial hybrid space. Focusing specifically on the challenges of the unadopted roads at Studd Hill, this article’s comparisons reveal how the anarchistic emergence of plotlander housing in the United Kingdom has produced innovative solutions to their social marginality that reflect the spatial values of postcolonial hybrid spaces.