Spatializing higher education: Emirati women learners’ hot and cold spaces

This article is concerned with the types of lived spaces that emerged from exploring Emirati women learners’ spatial experiences in higher education. By conducting an ethnographic qualitative inquiry and by utilizing Lefebvre’s triad of the perceived, conceived and lived space and rhythmanalysis as a theoretical framework, two distinctive categories of the lived space emerged: ‘Hot’ and ‘Cold’ spaces, with their sub-categorizations. These emergent spaces reveal and reflect Emirati women learners’ spatial needs and experiences as manifested through their spatial appropriation and unique rhythms on campus. The findings also extend our understanding and utilization of Lefebvre’s abstract triad, specifically the lived space, and confirm how space is neither abstract nor static, but socially constructed, dynamic as well as culturally and contextually bound. The spatial focus of this study offers a novel way of thinking about women’s experiences and needs in higher education, thus extending the scholarly work on spatializing education.