Summary
A third place is somewhere people gather informally that is neither home (the ‘first place’) nor work (the ‘second’): cafés, pubs, barbers, libraries, parks, places of worship. The American sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term in his 1989 book ‘The Great Good Place’, arguing that such places anchor community life and matter for democracy, civic engagement and a sense of place.
You can turn up uninvited, it’s nearby and unpretentious, there are regulars, and conversation is the main activity. A 2023 edition presents third places as an answer to loneliness and polarisation. ‘Third space’ is a separate theory, often confused with it.
Rationale
Part 2 counts town planners and architects among those who “help shape the contexts in which particular deep dispositions become prevalent”. Third places are such contexts, though a pub can exclude as easily as welcome.