Liminal spaces are the spaces in between. Out of place, out of time. They may be thresholds between two states of being. The liminal is limbo, no-one’s land. It feels like waiting, watching, being detached, floating.
You know what liminality is. Airports, waiting rooms, hallways. The space between one job ending and the next starting. Between childhood and adulthood. Between Christmas and New Year. In liminality we meet ourselves differently.
Its uncertainty is often moderated by traditions, rituals that seek to properly close the old times and invoke the luck needed for the new times. The longing for control and reassurance can be the strongest in liminal spaces.
Some say modernity is permanent liminality. Constant change in all areas, constant discarding of what isn’t working, constant potential for new ways. Change is the only constant.
Startups, innovation, much of the creativity in business we see today occurs in liminal space and time.