The Great Good Place ist ein Buch von Ray Oldenburg aus dem Jahre 1999. Erschienen bei Marlowe and Company, New York. Hier ist ein Link zu einem Review von Jerry Kloby.

Es geht in diesem Buch um die dritten Plätze. Das sind die Pläte die Menschen neben ihrem Zuhaus (first place) und ihrer Arbeitsstelle (second place) aufsuchen. Das tun wir wohl eher unbewusst und gerade deshalb halten es Soziologen für so wichtig das es weiterhin ausreichend third places gibt.

Ich zitiere hier nur noch kurz das Fazit. Später bestimmt noch mehr dazu.

Some of the positive functions of third places:
 1. Third places provide a place for people to get to know each other.
 2. A third place can act serve as a neutral ground which provides an ease of association.
 3. They provide a sorting area where one can meet people with similar interests.
 4. They bring together people for the first time who may later go on to develop other forms of association.
 5. They provide a staging area. It times of local crisis people can assemble and arrange ways of helping each other.
 6. Third places help create public characters people who seem to know everybody in the neighborhood. They keep an eye on things, they alert parents about their child’s behavior before things reach a critical point, they welcome others to the neighborhood.
 7. They bring youths and adults together.
 8. They provide a place for the elderly to meet and interact with each other as well as those who are younger than they.
 9.  They unite the neighborhood.
 10. They provide a place for exchanging information.
 11. Third places serve as political forums.
 12. They serve as offices for those who don’t have them or as neutral ground for those that do.