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The Great Third Place
"Social condensers" -- the place where citizens of a community or neighborhood meet to develop friendships, discuss issues, and interact with others -- have always been an important way in which the community developed and retained cohesion and a sense of identity. This is a place other than home (the First Place) or work (the Second Place), as conceptualized in Ray Oldenburg's books: The Great Good Place (1989), The Great Third Place (1999), and others.
Third places are the center theater for informal public life, they are places where people can meet old friends, make new acquaintances, discuss the important issues of the day, and temporarily throw off the weight of the world that can drag them down. In American life Third Places have included colonial taverns, candy stores, soda fountains, coffee shops, the local diner, the post office, the corner store, the Main Street bench, the Town Park, and the barber shop or hair salon. Oldenburg, a sociologist, shows that involvement in informal public life has important psychological, social, and political implications, and such involvement is made possible by the existence of third places.
Successful third places typically have the following qualities:
They must be free or relatively inexpensive to enter and to purchase food and drinks.
They must be highly accessible, ideally one should be able to get there by foot from one’s home.
A number of people can be expected to be there on a daily basis.
All people should feel welcome, it should be easy to get into a conversation. A person who goes there should be able to find both old and new friends each time they visit.
Third Places fulfill important community needs and functions:
Unify neighborhoods
Interfaces for visitors and newcomers (where information, directions, and other information can easily be obtained)
People with special interests can find others with similar interests
Contact points for all ages (youth and adults can interact instead of remaining isolated)
Gathering place in times of emergency
Foster political debate
Reduce the cost of living (mutual aid societies or natural informal support groups tend to form as people relax in their Third Place; also advice found in Third Places may save on time, trouble, and money)
Entertainment
Promote friendships; Third Places are important for retired people
Unfortunately, American society, in large part, is lacking in Third Places, contributing to isolationism, disconnectedness, and social despair.
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