Nineteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” in reference to the public, recreational gathering sites that we occupy during our free time. Such places are distinct in both form and function from the private, “first place” of home and the public yet professional “second place” of work. Third places include cafes, parks, libraries, bars and places of worship and are critical for healthy communities, yet they have been on the decline in the United States since the conclusion of World War II. Although Oldenburg began writing of the significance of third places more than three decades ago, the COVID-19 global pandemic recently served to underscore both their value and their role in society. Among the manifold repercussions of the novel coronavirus was the immediate conflation of first, second and third places as cities went into quarantine and third places worldwide were instantly shuttered in the spring of 2020. This paper applies Oldenburg’s third place theory as a framework within which to examine the effects of COVID-19, arguing that the pandemic has occasioned a necessary revaluation of the third place in the United States that must be considered in planning for post-pandemic America.