Ray Oldenburg, sociologist, explains the importance of “third places” to avoid loneliness in society

Ray Oldenburg (1932-2022) was a sociologist and teacher who introduced an extremely simple idea of the “third place” in 1989 in his book ‘The Great Good Place’. He quipped in a phone conversation with Karen Christensen in 2020 during the covid-19 lockdown: “The wonder is that it had to catch on.”

The idea has become ubiquitous today and helped lead efforts to revitalize cities around the world. Third places are seen as being vital to help tackle the challenges of climate change, political polarization and loneliness.

What are “third places”?

Third places are everyday familiar spots where people can hangout that strengthen a sense of community and individuals from different backgrounds can get together. Whereas the “first place” is a person’s home and the “second place” is the office or school, “third places” are informal public gathering spaces like “cafes, diners, coffee shops, tea parlors, hair salons, barber shops, pubs and taverns, taquerias, libraries, bookshops, and street corners.”

The places “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work,” according to his definition of a third place. Key characteristics inherent to third places are that they are a neutral ground for everyone, ideal for striking up a friendly conversation, and they are frequented by regulars who feel that it’s a home away from home. Think of the bar in the TV series ‘Cheers’.

Ray Oldenburg on “third places”

In his conversation with Christensen, Oldenburg explained that for him a third place means somewhere where people can sit down and converse. “I don’t know of any stand up third places,” he said.

“I often think of my hometown where so many of the stores had wooden benches outside,” he recalled. “People would meet one another and sit down on these benches and talk for a little bit and then move on.”

“Those days are gone. They’re already gone,” he lamented. He points out that nowadays new neighborhoods where he was living didn’t even put in sidewalks. But he said that was a “good thing” as nobody uses them anyways.

“Suburban development, single use zoning has had a tremendous impact on [people meeting strangers and striking up a conversation],” he explained. Despite having neighbors, he notes that in his case he and his wife had nothing to do with the ones on either side of his house aside from “some kind of little emergency that brings us together.”

“We respect their privacy, they respect their privacy,” he pointed out. “The size of homes has doubled in the past so many years, and more and more and more of life is contained to the home. And electronics that help us along,” he said.

“Life without community has produced, for many, a life style consisting mainly of a home-to-work-and-back-again shuttle. Social well-being and psychological health depend upon community,” he reflected in ‘The Great Good Place’. “It is no coincidence that the ‘helping professions’ became a major industry in the United States as suburban planning helped destroy local public life and the community support it once lent.”

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