With the decline of traditional community institutions, new social gathering places have sprung up to take their place in contemporary society. Coffee shops, gyms, co-working spaces, and bookstores have become the new “third spaces”—spaces that lay between home (the first space) and work (the second space), where people gather to socialize, relax, and find community. This change reflects evolving modes of seeking belonging, sense-making and social intercourse in an era of hyper-individuation as well as poses questions about the commodification of community and the durability of market-based social remedies.
The Concept of Third Space
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the phrase “third place” to refer to informal public gathering space which is essential for community and democracy. Classic third spaces were churches, town squares, pubs and social clubs where everyone could meet on level terms of shared ground often. These venues nurtured what sociologists call social capital—the networks of relationships that allow societies to work well, including trust, reciprocity and cooperation.
With suburbanization, car culture, and new work patterns eroding traditional community life, commercial institutions stepped into a social vacuum that faltering civic organizations were vacating.
Modern Third Space Evolution
- Coffee Culture: On more general terms, the cafes are flexible in that they allow people to work alone together and offer the “alone together” experience which reflects to the current lifestyle needs.
- Fit Tribes: Gyms, yoga studios and boutique fitness centers foster tribal belonging around shared health goals and habitual attendance spreadsheets
- Co-working spaces: Mix business networking with socializing, combating the loneliness of freelancers and telecommuters
- Commerce as Community: Booksellers, breweries and maker spaces turn culture commerce into community events
- Digital-Physical Hybrids: Spaces that combine digital communities with physical meeting spaces, such as gaming cafes or even a sports book lounge where fans connect over similar interests
What Third Spaces Provide
Modern third spaces fulfill basic human needs that were historically taken care of by stodgy institutions. Weak tie relationships—interactions with acquaintances—offer us the social stimulation without the intimacy of close friends or family. Horace Laffaye said routine and ritual make it easier to predict when someone might be inclined for a chat, while neutral ground means inhabitants from such disparate backgrounds are mingling as equals.
These arenas also provide opportunities to explore identity, and people try on parts of themselves in low-stakes social scenarios. That commercial third space is opt-in, and attractive to those who prefer choice over institutional rigidity.
The Challenges of Commercialized Community
Contemporary third spaces satisfy key societal wants, but there are also constraints because it is commercially driven. Affordability becomes an economic barrier for those who cannot commit to buying something on a regular basis, while profit may ensure that the ambition of community takes second place to getting people through the door. The superficial ties found in market settings do not provide enough social cues for, and create less mutual obligation than, strong reciprocal relationships.
Privatization of public life Privatizing a community’s common space means that it depends on business success rather than public responsibilities, so when economic conditions change, the commons is vulnerable.
Wrapping Up
The proliferation of commercial third spaces is a testament to human flexibility and enduring hunger for community connection. While such spaces are useful, at the very least, for meeting some social needs in our highly individualized society, they cannot substitute for the depth and availability of domestic space or local access to community institutions for citizen engagement. Knowing this allows us to better understand the novelty of today’s third spaces as well as why we need to keep non-commercial forms of authentic community alive next to our commercial social remedies.
Alyssa