The Great Good Place

1
The Great Good Place

• Helena Loh
• INF 385Q Knowledge Management Systems, Fall 2005
• Book Report
• 10 November 2005

2
Presentation Outline

• Ray Oldenburg
• The First and second places
• The Third place
• Third places
• What they have in common
• Challenges for the Third Place in America
• Some of what happens without the Third Place
• Opinion about the book
• Third Places in the Information Age
• Resources

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Ray Oldenburg

• Urban sociologist from Florida
• The importance of informal public gathering
  places for local democracy and community vitality
• Most needed are those third places which lend
  a public balance to the increased privatization
  of home life. Third places are nothing more than
  informal public gathering places. The phrase
  third places derives from considering our homes
  to be the first places in our lives, and our
  work places the second.
• link to quote

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The First and Second Places

• The First The Home
• Regular, predictable environment
• Sanctuary - not always good for socializing -
  private space
• Territorial - always division between guest and
  host
• The Second The Workplace
• Reduces individual to single productive role
• Fosters competition, motivates ambition
• Provides means for living and material goods
• Structures life by providing routine

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The Third Place - I

• The Third the core setting of informal public
  life
• Neutral ground
• we need a good deal of immunity from those whose
  company we like best (p. 23)
• Leveler
• an inclusive placeaccessible to the general
  public and does not set formal criteria of
  membership and exclusion. (p. 24)
• Upbeat
• enjoy the company of ones fellow human
  beingsnot wallow in pity over misfortunes. (p.
  26)
• Conversation
• talk just the right amount,all are expected to
  contribute. (p. 28)

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The Third Place - II

• Accessible and accommodating
• one may go alone at almost any time of the
  daywith assurance that acquaintances will be
  there. (p. 28)
• Low profile
• typically plain
• discourages pretention
• come as they are (p. 37)
• At Home-ness
• No actual ownership
• Social regeneration
• The freedom to be
• Warmth (p. 41)

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Third Places - I

• The German-American Lager Beer Gardens
• Beer is one of the social virtues (p. 93)
• Open to families
• Leveler of social class
• Affordability
• Allowed social participation - formed friendships
  and matched interests
• Main Street allowed people to do nothing. (p.
  112)
• Short walk to get there
• Large enough for companionship
• Small enough to avoid division
• Frequent socializing and children playing on
  streets sidewalks

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Third Places - II

• The English Pub
• enjoys a good press, an aura of
  respectability, and a high degree of integration
  in the life of the citizenry.
• (p. 123)
• Multiple areas within the establishment catering
  to different classes of society
• No frills - lack of formality and pretension
• Common-denominator appeal
• Fellowship must prevail and it depends most upon
  informality.
• (p. 125)
• Friendly atmosphere based on conversation

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Third Places - III

• The French Café places to dwell in. (p. 145)
• Terrasses stretch out onto sidewalk
• Have no names - le bistro
• Provides venue for politics, writing, seating for
  street games, card games
• Allows for privacy or sociability
• The American Tavern a failing institutioneven
  an endangered species (p. 166)
• Was a forum and a community center, a place for
  genial self-expression (p. 166)
• Rejection of public drinking establishments
• Private consumption of alcoholic beverages
• Trend moves taverns from residential areas -
  changes character, popularity and clientele

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Third Places - IV

• Classic Coffeehouses
• Coffee spurs the intellect (p. 184)
• Place to read the daily newspaper
• Quality service, good meals, reading room
• Included all walks of society

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What these places have in common

• Conversation
• Conviviality
• Social leveling
• Relaxation
• Bonhomie

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Challenges for the Third Place in America I

• Individualism This is not mine. I have no
  responsibility for this. (p. 83)
• Suburbia offers no facilities for accidental
  encounters or for collective meetings social
  participation beyond family and friends is
  limited (p. 71)
• Mass media creates shut-ins of almost
  everyone. (p. 211)
• Public facilities came to be objects of private
  consumption and use. (p. 214)

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Challenges for the Third Place in America II

• Commercialism Give them nothing without
  chargediscourage the low-profit itemsand push
  the big-profit items. (p. 226)
• Consumerism purchase the splendid isolation for
  themselves. (p. 222)
• Gender differences marriage cannot afford all
  the togetherness presently imposed upon it. (p.
  248)
• Age differences Children are not compatible
  with a fuller realization of personal or
  liberated communities. (p. 266)

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What happens?

• Individual and familial isolation
• No social outlet for stress
• Build-up of antisocial tendencies
• Lack of third place community building
• Those who choose not to participate always have
  that choice but those of us who yearn for a
  public life and for life on the streets of our
  neighborhoods have been deprived. (p. xxvii)

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The book

• Explored and provided insight to an area
  pertinent to everyone
• Provided an interesting history, but was limited
  to European and North American societies
• Made some remarkable observations but were not
  always supported by researched evidence e.g.
  Britain is the worlds third largest beer
  market (p. 124)
• May need to be reconsidered in certain areas e.g.
• our big cities are filled withstarved and
  thwarted characters who, because of the huge,
  blind fury of city living, must forever bottle up
  a free expression of their individualism, their
  love for living, to become one with the trampling
  mob (p. 106)
• where men are at ease and comfortable with one
  another, homosexual relationships are minimal.
  (p. 250)
• women have had, and continue to have, an
  advantage over men in the spare time available to
  them (p. 236)

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Third Places in the Information Age

• Online communities - chat groups, blogs, forums,
  interest groups
• Internet cafés
• Areas with a wireless connection
• Collaborative learning
• Listservs
• Can these be considered third places?

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Resources and Applications

• Website
• Principles applied in
• Educational
• Spiritual
• Communication patterns
• Design
• Project for Public Spaces