Does spatial context of Third Place matter? Revisiting the Third Place concept based on user preferences: case of Kolkata, India

ABSTRACT

Third Places (TPs), defined by Oldenburg in suburban American context are social informal gathering spaces, except home and workplace. Major literature focused on how TPs create social capital and cohesion within communities, largely benefitting socially, psychologically and even economically. Over the years, the TP concept is contested to globally transform from its initial theme of communitarianism to present dominant forms of neo-liberal consumerism. This posed significant threat to the inherent idea of affordable sociability rooted in characteristic plainness and neutral ground of TP. Moreover, exploring the spatial patterns and the influence of geographical variations on the nature of TP across urban landscapes is largely understudied. This study thus aimed to develop a consolidated understanding of the spatial dynamics of TPs in Indian context. The paper presented a city level, empirical based quantitative study based on online questionnaire survey. Commercial TPs are found to be most preferred. Research findings showed that the types of TP significantly affect the individual’s preferred travel distance. Also, one’s behavioural attributes as a whole significantly affect the catchment of the TPs, influenced by spatial variations. Hotspot analysis demonstrated three significant spatial concentrations across the city based on distance-based clustering. It showed heterogenous agglomerating tendencies of TP.

KEYWORDS:

• Third Places
• travel distance
• catchment
• spatial context
• behavioural attributes
• Indian context

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sulagna De

Sulagna De is a Research Scholar at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur. She is an architect and urban planner. Her research area is centred around public urban green spaces.

Arup Das

Dr. Arup Das is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur. His research interest lies in natural resource management and vulnerability studies.

Tarak Nath Mazumder

Dr. Taraknath Mazumder is a Professor at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur. His research interest lies in urban sociology, and behavioural transportation studies.