Megan West(erby)

“The Third Place”

austinkleon:

The Third Place is a concept of Ray Oldenburg, urban sociologist and author of The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. The First Place is your home, and the Second Place is your office. You have assigned roles and tasks at each place, and you know nearly all the people in each. The Third Place is where you meet with people you don’t know that well, or maybe at all, and you exchange ideas, learn about other people, and, as Oldenburg sees it, enrich society and yourself.

via Why In-Person Socializing Is A Mandatory To-Do Item | Fast Company

When I was a senior in high school I started working at Starbucks, a job to save money for college. They were big on having us read and appreciate Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, which emphasized Starbucks As Third Place, and how we as employees had a responsibility to create that space. I would definitely say I’ve internalized the concept of the Third Place and the creation of such, and that internalized lesson also relates to my ideas on performing identity, being a hostess, and being a guest. Thinking about the explicit and implicit weight we place on interpersonal transactional time is important. 

29 January 2012 ·