Third places, i.e. not home (first place) or work (second place), provide opportunities for people to meet and interact on neutral ground and to develop ties to place. As the world population becomes increasingly urbanised and mobile, ‘third places’ take on greater importance for introducing new residents into their neighbourhood and reducing social isolation by allowing local people to meet in informal but meaningful ways. This seminar will re-examine the concept and relevance of third places, originally envisaged by Ray Oldenburg 30 years ago. After introducing the third place concept, the speaker will discuss some of the findings from the chapters in the book, “Rethinking Third places”, in relation to new types of third places including music archives, virtual spaces, public transport and my case study of community gardens; and provide new conceptual views of third places in relation to inclusivity across age and gender. The seminar will conclude with suggestions on how to incorporate third places into the design of new public spaces and how to retrofit existing public spaces to activate third places.

Title: Exploring ‘third places’ as public spaces that create a sense of place and neighbourhood belonging

Time & Place: 19 February 2020 12:00pm–1:00pm, Room 518/519, Chamberlain Building (#35)

Speaker: Joanne Dolley (PhD) is an urban geographer and associate member of the Cities Research Institute, Griffith University. Joanne co-edited and wrote a chapter for the book, “Rethinking Third Places. Informal Public Spaces and Community Building”. The book received a commendation at the 2019 PIA (Qld) awards. The case study of Joanne’s PhD research was community gardens, where she explored their social capital using a third place framework. Joanne is currently a Research Fellow at Griffith University and a committee member of the Australasian Early Career Urban Research Network (AECURN), Queensland.