Third place
Examples of third places include churches, cafes, bars, clubs, libraries, gyms, bookstores, hackerspaces, stoops, parks, and theaters, among others.
Oldenburg's coauthor Karen Christensen argues in the 2025 sequel that third places are the answer to loneliness, political polarization, and climate resilience.
[6] Time spent in these locations was used as a tool to show off of one's status and ability to spend money on simple luxuries.
[7] Food and drink often have been closely associated with the idea of third places, being that they offer inciting motivation to attend, but wouldn't get in the way of conversation.
[8] Not dissimilar to tea houses, the increasing popularity of coffeehouses during England's 17th Century became societal staples for community building.
According to a UNESCO article co-written by Ray Oldenburg himself, "As places of free speech allowing a certain level of equality, coffeehouses can be seen as the precursors of democracy".
[9] They were referred to as "Penny Universities" in the way that they enabled attendees to expose themselves to intellectual fervor with no financial barrier of entry.
[10] One of the criteria for the third place, according to Jeffres et al. (2009), is that it "offers stress relief from the everyday demands of both home and work.
It provides the feeling of inclusiveness and belonging associated with participating in a group’s social activities, without the rigidity of policy or exclusiveness of club or organization membership".
[15][16][17] Variant forms of the concept include the "community coffee house" and the "community living room," a term which has been adopted by several organizations[18][19] to describe the model of a cooperatively-run "third space" which includes commercial or non-commercial functions with an emphasis on providing a free space for social interaction.
The general store or pub and occasionally bookstore or diner are traditional variants of the concept, provided in such cases there is an emphasis on expectation of socialization, and customers are invited to stay and "hang out" with or without making any (or additional) purchases.
[20] A church community fills this role for many people, including groups that focus on common interests and hobbies.
The characteristics observed in these communities vary from their physical application but meet the context of personalization, permeability, approachability, and comfort.
Avatars often interact via built-in text chat systems, allowing users to communicate without revealing their identity through their voice.
[28] A third place which provides internet access may create a hollow effect in that the patrons are physically present but do not make social contact with each other, being absorbed by their remote connections.
This is similar to how patrons behave in learning commons environments like those in university libraries where the preponderance of socializing is among people who already know each other.
His postmodern conception draws on and is influenced by Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, and postcolonial thinkers Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, bell hooks, Edward Said, and Homi K. Bhabha.
