THIRD & FOURTH SPACE MUSING

The third place (also known as third space) is a concept of community place/space where the social environment is apart from our two usual social environments – home and workplace. In his book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important. They the real foundations of a community's, a community network's, sense of belonging, they underpin democratic, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place. 

Oldenburg seems to imagine our home, our "first place", and the places that we live with, our "second place", our workplaces,  the locale of our collegiality — the place where many people actually spend most of their time – and together they are our sustenance zones. 

Third places, are then the "anchorages" and neighbourhoods where community life gains substance and meaning. They allow for and engender broader, more creative, more inclusive, more meaningful interactions and exchanges. All societies have such informal meeting places – and have had them since forever. 

What's new here is the deliberateness in the ways they are sought out to meet social needs and the ways it has been theorised. 

Oldenburg suggests that the hallmarks of a true "third place" are that it is: 

• Free or inexpensive food and drink – albeit not essential but nonetheless important; 
• Highly accessible and close for many – walking distance; 
• Populated by regulars – people who habitually gather there for social reasons and community purposes;
• Welcoming and comfortable – especially nonthreatening.

Friends, new and old, may be found within such places. Robert Putnam came to a position somewhat like Oldenburg's third place in his book Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital (1995, 2000).

If Oldenburg and Putnam's theory has veracity we might well imagine various spaces/places as "fourth places".  They would be those were formal cum ritual cum cultural 'transactions' are carried out –  churches, temples, shrines, courts, parliaments, theatres, schools, sports grounds/areas etc. and of course musingplaces.  

While for some these places will be second and/or third spaces, for many people they will have various and quite different relationships with them. 

Typically, when there are architectural tensions or some other issue between audiences, constituencies, memberships, etc. the properties of third spaces are often invoked to meet people's aspirations and their social cum cultural needs. 

When it comes to musingplaces in the 21st C their constituencies – community members, researchers, tourists, et al – are seeking friendlier, participatory  and often more collegial relationships.