Non Place

Marc Augé coined the phrase “non-place” to refer to places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as “places” (e.g.: a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket).

This quote is taken from Monoskop https://monoskop.org/Marc_Aug%C3%A9 Monoskop has a link to the pdf of the English version of Marc Augé and his seminal essay Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity.

Third Place

Ray Oldenburg coined ‘third place’ in his 1989 book The Great Good Place.

Wikipedia has a good introduction to the third place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

Oldenburg calls one’s “first place” the home and the people the person lives with. The “second place” is the workplace—where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. In other words, “your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances.”

The last quote there is taken from one of my favourite local magazines, NZ Geographic. It’s fun to see an NZ mention on Wikipedia! It’s also a good article https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/a-third-place/

People need third places, and communities need them too. This article has lots of onwards links to research and articles. It also has suggestions for finding places, including virtual ones. https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/third-place-community-spaces/

My Third Places

Ultimate Frisbee has played a large role in my life. Going to trainings, playing leagues, and playing tournaments has been essential to my physical and emotional wellbeing for nearly twenty years. I have drifted away and I feel that there is a gap that it has left. This is a combination of getting old and unfit, family life, inconvenience of travel to leagues around Auckland, and having spent far too long organising Taupo Hat. This isn’t a bad thing: I think it’s a reality

Even with serious ultimate there was always a social component of catching up with friends, seeing people you haven’t seen since the last tournament, and usually a party. Social ultimate in my experience was at leagues, making sure that people have a good time, and were learning the rules. Brass Monkey, Ocean Beach, and of course Taupo Hat are my favourite tournaments for which the meaning of a third place could be stretched to cover.

In my role as tournament director for Taupo Hat I always saw the goal of organising to be facilitation of people having a good time. I sometimes referred to it as ‘loosely organised chaos’. Anyone was welcome in terms of ability, we try to keep the cost as low as possible, experienced people help new people. Spirit games and a costume party also contribute to the festivities. People should leave wanting to come back again next year. “Post-tournament depression” is an unfortunate side effect of providing people a good time.

What an animal

Another thing I used to love doing was pub quiz. I like knowing things, I like hanging out with people, and I like a beer or two. Even though you are competing against other teams, placing doesn’t really matter. I never got involved enough to be really competitive. The shared experience of success and failure against yourself and against the questions was a good thing to be a part of. It’s also worth mentioning homemade quizzes are better than mass produced ones i.e. Believe It Or Not making things too commercial, sanitised, and farther away from a third place experience.

Now that I’m a dad, my third place experiences have changed. They now include the zoo, MOTAT, the museum, the maritime museum, the library, and playgrounds. Some of these are paid, we don’t always meet up with people, the objective is often not conversation, but they are so important to family and community life. It is a joy to experience new things through and with a young person even if their questions are repetitive and it takes a big effort to make the trip. When we do meet up with people it always seems worthwhile and there’s never enough time to talk. “We’ll see you again soon” is a common refrain that unfortunately doesn’t always pan out.

Cafes are also important meeting places that can be described as a third place. I love cafe culture and always having somewhere new to explore plus having a local to fall back on. This also applies to pubs, of which there is a lack in Panmure. The corner bar focused on pokies and TAB plus the RSA do not cut it. Everyone knows Peach’s Hot Chicken though, which is an awesome place to eat. The Beer Spot is cool, but just a little bit far away.

Yum

The ubiquity of pubs in Ireland is magical. It is similar to cafe culture in New Zealand, the land of flat whites. I was suprised to learn that Ireland does not have the most establishments per capita. Side note: this is a beloved way to measure things for New Zealanders. In the spirit of this blog, here is another blog post about the most pubs per capita for Irish towns. https://thomas.bibby.ie/where-in-ireland-has-the-most-pubs-per-person/

I went to a cycle maintenance clinic recently. There were a couple of guys and about 20 participants learning about bikes. It wasn’t mind-blowing, I know how to change a tyre, but it was interesting nonetheless. The thing was, lots of the people stayed around afterwards and chatted about bikes. It was a time to discuss a mutual hobby and compare notes on bikes and tracks and just hang out. I get the feeling people would do this regularly if it was available. Cool related things: the innovation of cycle hubs in Auckland, a place to go for community and tools and grease. I think I might be a bit young for a men’s shed but I’m looking forward to joining one in a few years when I’m a bit greyer. Maybe a bowls club as well?

This is a TV recommendation in the vein of a mens shed: Detectorists. I love the idea of getting out in to nature, hanging quietly with friends, maybe finding something, and then going to the pub.

Greater Auckland

This is a website recommendation: Greater Auckland. These thoughts about places to meet, places to linger, travelling to ultimate practice, providing quality family experiences, are captured better than I can explain at Greater Auckland. This blog has influenced my thinking on a well connected city with housing choice. The lack of light rail in Auckland is a tragedy. The separation of Lunn Avenue and Stonefields is a weird result of poor urban planning. The amount of carparking and car yards around Panmure station is something that should be fixed. Taupiri motorway shops are kind of useful, but only on the way to somehwere else.

Obviously I have a bunch of links that explain this more.

A recent roundup post with really great links
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/05/24/weekly-roundup-17-may-2024-2/

The famed Congestion Free Network is an admirable goal, I don’t know if it will ever be implemented, but it’s fun to think about.
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/congestion-free-network-2/

This post goes into great detail about the political implications of a road-focused funding model
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/05/21/how-central-governments-road-obsession-is-choking-aucklands-transport-plans/

A pair of articles from 2018 from The Spinoff about third place
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/02-07-2018/every-new-zealander-needs-a-third-place
https://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland/05-07-2018/how-to-make-third-places-that-aucklanders-want-to-use

2024 update of a 2018 post from a similar blog from Wellington
https://talkwellington.org.nz/2024/when-a-third-place-actually-means-were-winning-2/

Further Reading

Introduction to third places
https://medium.com/@gzm.err/the-third-place-theory-ae0dcee927b6

This is a fun but soft-paywalled article about chance encounters
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/third-places-meet-new-people-pandemic/629468/

A profile on Oldenburg
https://www.pps.org/article/roldenburg

Extra introduction from Today https://www.today.com/today/rcna94279

Review of another of Oldenburg’s books, Celebrating the Third Place https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/2002/2002-01-31-third-place-review.htm

Provides a good explanation of what third places are and some thoughts about how to find one https://www.jordanharbinger.com/why-you-need-a-third-place-and-how-to-find-one/

“Strengthening social networks is a crucial step to reviving neighborhoods and addressing social problems. Third places can do much to help stabilize communities and reduce social problems.”

This approaches third places from a community and place building perspective. It’s nice, and essential, to be able to walk to places.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/third-places-as-community-builders/

Bars provide the initial social cohesion when revitalising old industrial areas. https://shelterforce.org/2012/05/24/in_praise_of_loud_stinky_bars/

“Bars qualify: you can’t download a pint of Guinness.”

Suggests that bars and third places are important for sustainability as well. If we don’t have to drive, that makes us more active, reduces driving, reduces drunk driving.
https://shelterforce.org/2012/07/13/does_a_sustainable_community_need_a_good_drinking_establishment/

PDF essay about England’s M1 motorway non-places, with related papers on a variety of perspectives of places and non-places. https://www.academia.edu/1160482/Driving_Places_Marc_Auge_non_places_and_the_geographies_of_Englands_M1_motorway

Coffeehouses of the revolutionaries i.e. penny universities.
https://www.history.com/news/coffee-houses-revolutions

Postscript

Increasingly, these meeting places are virtual. Facebook groups like Dull Men’s Club, the unfortunate entry of conspiracy focused Telegram channels, WhatsApp groups to share memes and reels. I think this post is a reminder for me to put my phone away and get outside more, to connect with people, touch grass, to find a Third Place.

Look Up