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The Great Good Place argues that "third places" - where people can gather, put aside the concerns of work and home, and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation - are the heart of a community's social vitality and the grassroots of democracy.
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THE ENSUING YEARS have confirmed Lerner's diagnosis. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE ENSUING YEARS have confirmed Lerner's diagnosis. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable insights into communities,
By AVW (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great Good Place: Cafaes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paperback)
The importance of this book is such that anyone with the remotest interest in community or social life, whether their own or others', should read it at least once. Oldenburg's premise is deceptively simple: that a community needs a third place, a place that is neither one's home nor work, in order to mingle and strengthen social and personal ties. But he goes a lot further than that, showing how even individual health and security are reliant on such establishments; and that democracy itself is dependent as evidenced by attempts in the 17th century in Sweden and England to close down coffee houses as they were considered hotbeds of dissent i.e. people thinking for themselves. The lack of third places in modern western culture therefore takes on quite a serious, if not sinister, tone.Having read Putnam's 'Bowling Alone', where he references Oldenburg quite considerably, I was unsure about buying this book as the premise seemed simple and quite obvious. But that doesn't do justice to the wealth of material here, and surprising revelations. For instance, what I considered fully functioning third places where I meet friends in London, turn out to be BYOFs - Bring Your Own Friends - where the social interaction is severely limited to small independent groups, therefore having limited benefit for the larger community. I have one criticism and one only, which is similar to that I have of Putnam where he appears so convinced of the positive effects of social capital that he isn't aware of its potential for destructive influence, such as social bullying and subtle conditioning at the expense of the individual. With 'The Great Good Place', Oldenburg is likewise so convinced of his own argument - and it IS convincing - that he takes it too far, possibly, in one later chapter where he calls for the segregation of the sexes. He may be right, but he doesn't put his case convincingly to others; and one can't escape the feeling that he's basically a good old boy coming from another era, that he doesn't know a society where men and women can relax in one another's company and be straightforward and honest with each other. But then he picks up speed again after this chapter, and is right back on form. Overall this is an extraordinarily fascinating and informative book, full of modern and historical anecdotes, and provides much-needed insight into the ailments of modern society, as well as cures that actually succeed as I have discovered in my own community work.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Great Good Place,
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This review is from: The Great Good Place: Cafaes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paperback)
Fantasic book, easy to read, makes absolute sense, learning from this is easily transferred to any community setting.. Excellent resource for anyone interested in community development.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews) 71 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant analysis of a serious contemporary problem,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Great Good Place: Cafaes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paperback)
Ray Oldenburg's The Great Good Place, just issued in this paperback version, is a classic in the sociological literature on the social and cultural geography of American Culture. Taking it's place alongside The Road to Nowhere, much of Christopher Lasch's work and the writings of other distinguished students of the decline of place in America, Oldenburg's work is in many ways better than these precursors because he shows how and why we were on the way to creating a placeless culture even before the computer revolution exacerbated the tend. The wholesale and largely uncritical acceptance of the automobile, place-hostile zoning ordinances, and puritanical meddling have conspired to produce a culture which is rapidly extinguishing haunts and hangouts--the sort of real places of pure sociability which contribute so much to the quality of life and which Oldenburg sees missing in the narrow, money-grubbing, time-driven culture of late century Americans. His analysis of the English Pub, the German Beer Garden, the Viennese coffee house, and other authenic places brings a much needed antidote to the depressing sameness that is characteristic of the increasingly McDonalized society in which we live. Not giving in to pessimism and despair himself, Oldenburg offers wise and witty prescriptions for how we can turn this around and once again produce a "Great Good Place." His thesis is that we have produced this environment--we can produce a better one. This is social science at its best, and with this new paperback edition just published, it should be accessible to more readers than ever.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Think, eat, drink, act, buy local....,
By Good reader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Great Good Place: Cafaes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paperback)
Drawn by the concept of a "third place" as described by this book and referenced elsewhere, I thought I'd read to find out what this was about. In the end, this was a fascinating and thought provoking book. Mr. Oldenburg posits that much of our societal ills today are resultant from a lack of free association. That is, the places where people congregate / hang-out are disappearing because of urbanization, industrialization, etc. One example, the German beer garden (and its descendant in the US with early German immigrants) as a family affair - as, economically, there didn't seem to be any reason for such an institution in an "American" community, this venue slowly disappeared or devolved into the bars we know today - focused on serving alcohol to the subservient and willing. In fact, Oldenburg points out, the beer served in the beer garden was weaker than what we know today because the point was not the beer - the point was the association and conversation within the community, among families.As we move towards a "private property society" and focus on "property rights" as we seem to understand them, the ability to be social, without prior planning, is slowly eroding. Simultaneously, the places to "hang out" are disappearing as a consumer driven market seems desirous of generating the most profit for the fewest people (corporations). Because of a desire for inexpensive goods, a local business, owned and operated by nearby residents, is next to impossible - especially in the face of the mass market competition from large corporations. I think Oldenburg hits the nail squarely on the head. As I drive around (in a car-based economy), it's increasingly difficult to find a place to "hang out" and/or become a regular. (1) Restaurants are driven towards specific time limit for customers in hopes of turning a larger profit by serving more customers; (2) American bars are not conducive because service deteriorates if you choose not to imbibe and those that also serve food follow (1); and (3) the notion of coffee shops not driven by 1 or 2 are few and far between. Even assuming that there are such places of the "third place" variety, it more often than not requires a car to get there (not to mention paying to simply park near a place). Anyone interested in property rights, humans as a social animal, and the notion of a "community," should read this book. 37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, if unfocused,
By T E Whalen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Great Good Place: Cafaes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paperback)
Oldenburg's scholarship here is a little fuzzy -- while I found myself agreeing with many of his points, much of his evidence seemed anecdotal. His cross-cultural comparisons were interesting: the French cafe and the Austrian coffeehouse are institutions that seem, well, very foreign to Americans.There are no substantive mentions of hair salons or bookstores in this work. I'm not sure how they slipped into the title. On the whole, this work raises interesting questions about the decline of public life and public space in American culture. Oldenburg throws a number of darts at the suburbs and poor urban planning, but seems to spend more time lamenting the lost innocence of small-town America than thinking about the future and how things could be turned around. There's a lot of thought-provoking material here, and I think this work represents a good jumping-off point for further consideration and research. |
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