the porous city

The Third Place
"The social scientist Ray Oldenburg talks about how humans need a third place, besides work and home, to meet with friends, have a beer, discuss the events of the day, and enjoy some human interaction. Coffee shops, bars, hair salons, beer gardens, pool halls, clubs, and other hangouts are as vital as factories, schools and apartments ["The Great Good Place", 1989]."

For the record, I don't think online communities can be talked about as any kind of replacement. I don't think Joel does, either; the "third place" stuff is mostly a hook for what he wants to write about online communities. I'm more interested in reading Bowling Alone now, though.

Better: What is a third place?

Update: more fuel for my hatred of zoning laws. "The newer neighborhoods have developed under the single-use zoning imperative -- which makes these critical, informal social gathering places illegal."


last modified: 10:48:21 03-Mar-2003
in categories:Design/Architecture, People

Comment

name*

email

homepage

No html.

what's the second letter of your name?

This is Lukas Bergstrom's weblog. You can also find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tech
Energy, Wearables, Visual, Storage, Web, MacOS, WRX, Development, a11y, Medical, Business, Product Management, Open, Web analytics, Collaboration, Data, OS, Security, RSS, Crowdsourcing, Social, Shopping, Android, Javascript, AI, s60, Mobile, Audio, barcamp, PIM, Hardware, Automobile, Net

Other
Bicycling, Law, Personal care, San Francisco, Games, Travel, Minnesota, CrowdFlower, Housing, Life hacks, Activism, Statistics, California, Politik, L.A., Clothes, Geography, Video, Feminism, Agriculture, Toys, Boston, Friday, Quizzes, Berlin, NYC, Sports, Surfing, Podcasts, Food & Drink, History, Transportation

Music
Business, Hip-hop, Boston, Streams, Reviews, Good tracks, House, History, Mp3s, Mixes, Mailing lists, Videos, Musicians, L.A., Events, Booking, Lyrics, Labels, Making, Shopping

People
Stories, Buddhism, Languages, Weblogs, Meditation, Vocations, Life hacks, Subcultures, Friends, MOTAS, Heroes, Me, Health, Gossip, Exercise, Enemies, Working with, ADD, Family

Commerce
Shopping, Taxes, Web, Macroeconomics, Personal services, IP Law, Microfinance, Real Estate, Marketing and CRM, Personal finance, Insurance, Management consulting, Non-profit, International Development, Investing

Arts
Rhetoric, Burning Man, Poetry, Literature, Visual, iPad bait, Comix, Outlets, Sculpture, Animation, Movies, Spoken Word, Humor, Desktop wallpaper bait, Events

Design
Presentations, IA, User experience, Type, Architecture, Process, Furniture, Data visualization, Tools, Cool, Web, Algorithmic

Science
Statistics and Data, Zoology, Physics, Psychology, Networks, Environment, Cognition

Travel
Kenya, Vagabond '08, Kingdom of Siam, Uganda

Photos
Moblog, Photos I Wish I'd Taken, Friends

Philosophy
Mind

Mathematics

One Acre Fund

Internet classic

Subscribe to this site's rss feed