Third Places 101: Part 1

What are they? Why do they matter? Why are they under threat?

In his 2018 book “Palaces for the People,” Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist, recounts a humorous interaction about a design competition in which the designers envisioned a new resilience centre where everyone was welcome and would be enthusiastically greeted by staff upon arrival. There would be hundreds of resources anyone could use for free, and a place where people could connect with others or simply be. "Are you describing a library?" Klinenberg responds.

It seems pretty silly in this day and age, amid what has been described as a social isolation epidemic, that our beloved "third places" should be closing for lack of funding worldwide. So, just what is a third place? And why is it important? And why are they at risk despite visitation numbers rising?

Ray Oldenburg coined the phrase "Third Places"; if home is your first place and work your second, then where do you spend the rest of your time? The local library, the park, the corner cafe, the pub down the road, the barbershop where everyone knows your name. These are the places Oldenburg was describing when he wrote his 1996 essay "Our Vanishing Third Places," they’re informal public gathering spots that sit outside the demands of home and work, and that, he argued, most postwar suburban development had quietly designed out of existence.

What makes somewhere a "third place"? 

Not every spot you hang out counts. Oldenburg set out a specific checklist that sociologists still use today. A third place tends to be: 

1. Third places help unify neighbourhoods. Where third places are absent, we find that people often live in the same vicinity for years without ever getting to know one another.

   
   

2. Third places also serve as “ports of entry” for visitors and newcomers to the neighbourhood, where directions and other information can easily be obtained. For new residents, they provide a means of getting acquainted quickly and learning where things are and how the neighbourhood works.

   
   

3. Third places are “sorting” areas. While third places generally promote the habit of association, they are also where those with special interests find one another.

   
   

4. Third places can bring youth and adults together, allowing young people to learn from the wisdom of their elders. 

   
   

5. Third places help care for the neighbourhood. Keep regulars up to date on a variety of local matters. They also serve as gathering spots during emergencies or disasters. People want and need to be with others in these situations to help and support each other.

   
   

6. Third places foster political debate: they have historically served as forums for political discussion, where people are encouraged to learn and explore new ideas. 

   
   

7. Third places help reduce the cost of living: Where people meet regularly to relax and enjoy one another’s company, natural support groups or “mutual aid” societies tend to form.

   
   

8. Third places are entertaining, and the entertainment is provided by the people themselves. The sustaining activity is conversation, which is variously passionate and light-hearted, serious and witty, informative and silly.

   
   

9. Third places give the gift of friendship: not the singular, lifelong “best” friendship necessarily, but the tonic of friends met in numbers who foster our sense of belonging.

   
   

10. Third places are important for retired people: they provide a way to keep in touch with others and continue to enjoy the life of the community.

A pub or café where you're expected to buy something to stay doesn't strictly qualify by this definition, which is part of why libraries, parks and beaches so often top people's lists of third places, nobody is charging you rent to sit there and talk.

Oldenburg laid out concrete things third places do for a neighbourhood that nothing else quite replaces. They help residents who might otherwise live next to each other for years without meeting. They're a "port of entry" for newcomers, and a place where new mothers can socialise, compare notes, and learn from one another as their young children do the same. Retired residents stay plugged into the life of the community rather than drifting away from it. And in a crisis, they're where people instinctively gather to support one another.

Despite increased usage, our third places are still closing 

Use of some third places is rising, yet they're still under threat. Australian public libraries have clawed back in-person visits to pre-pandemic levels – up 10 per cent on the year before – and borrowing is up 23 per cent on pre-COVID numbers.

But more visitors haven't meant more money. Funding hasn't kept pace with the cost of running a library, and government services, such as Centrelink, now routinely send people without a computer or internet straight there.  Leaving staff to absorb unfunded tech support and digital-literacy work on top of everything else. 

Other third places, such as public swimming pools across Australia, are closing or being consolidated as Councils struggle to fund ageing infrastructure, even as summers get hotter. In their place, libraries and other community hubs are increasingly doubling as designated "cool places," extending hours during heatwaves to offer air-conditioned refuge to people without it at home.

Melbourne is expected to experience an overall loss of 25% green space per capita by 2043, meaning our public open spaces are also at risk. Commercial blight is impacting our pedestrian malls and main streets, making them feel unsafe to linger as we once did. And previously, where our community groups have carried the load, such as RSL Halls and churches, other recreation centres are also now closing.

It's the same problem Oldenburg described nearly thirty years ago, in modern clothes: the places that hold community together are chronically undervalued and underfunded, and the first thing cut when budgets tighten – right as they're being asked to do more.

But it's not all doom and gloom; next week, in part 2, we'll discuss other avenues for reclaiming these third places that don't rely solely on more government funding. Great things are happening in Australia and abroad via community and privately funded approaches to third places that don't have to cost a fortune.

At Village Well, we know the importance of third places and how they foster flourishing cultures and communities. We work with communities to make places that work for you. Reach out to us for your next project.