Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Coffeehouses, since their inception in western society, have served as informal public gathering places. Habermas traces the creation of the so-called public sphere, where people openly discussed and attempted to influence political action, to London’s seventeenth century coffeehouses. This tradition echoed in the United States. Oldenburg in “The Great Good Place” emphasizes the role of coffeehouses as a third place, where people meet, engage in conversation, and form a community. In “The Great Good Place”, Oldenburg was concerned about the demise of such third places; thirty years later his fears appear misplaced. Increasing interest in gourmet coffee mean that coffeehouses are ubiquitous features of the urban landscape. Between 1991 and 2015, the number of US specialty coffeehouses exploded in an eighteen-fold increase. Yet, despite this upsurge in numbers, Bar-Tura suggests that coffeehouses no longer perform as third places for social interaction. Instead, they have become “pseudo-libraries, taken over by the laptop generation” and “places of common isolation. A place to be alone together.” This research attempts to reconcile Oldenburg and Bar Tura’s competing coffeehouse visions by analyzing the design and social interactions in independently-owned coffeehouses in Minneapolis’s Uptown. Individual coffeehouses were evaluated on the degree to which social isolation is encouraged by seating layouts and the provision of office amenities; social interaction is facilitated via the presence of home amenities such as couches, and soft furnishings. The level of patron social interaction within coffeehouses is measured by the provision of home or office amenities influences patron behavior.