Reading a recent post from the ever verbose David Warlick today. Will, posting from the EduCon in Philly (I really wish I had time to attend that conference), commented on a session he was attending in which the speaker commented on the work of Ray Oldenburg, who talks about “third places“. Oldenburg says, in his book The Great Good Place the “first place” is home, the “second place” is work, and he defines “third places” as the “public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact”. The speaker in the session David was writing about used the Third Places as an anology for the blogs he uses with his students. I was thinking it might be a good reference to use in my Second Life presonation next month at PETE&C.

Here’s some info from Oldenburg’s website:

Third Places
Oldenburg identifies third places, or “great good places,” as the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact. In contrast to first places (home) and second places (work), third places allow people to put aside their concerns and simply enjoy the company and conversation around them. Third places “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.” Oldenburg suggests that beer gardens, main streets, pubs, cafés, coffeehouses, post offices, and other third places are the heart of a community’s social vitality and the foundation of a functioning democracy. They promote social equality by leveling the status of guests, provide a setting for grassroots politics, create habits of public association, and offer psychological support to individuals and communities.

“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.’”

“The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people’s more serious involvement in other spheres. Though a radically different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it extends…They are the heart of a community’s social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the American social landscape.”

Second Life provides a great application of this concept and easily becomes that third place that provides a leveling and grassroots petri dish.

At the very least, here’s the perfect research-based justification to my stopping at the bar every day on the way back from work.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 12:10 am and is filed under Learning Communities, Second Life, social discourse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.