The purpose of this research study is to extend the concept of third places, as explained by Oldenburg (2000), as being places designed as meeting places and as being dynamic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research study is to extend the concept of third places, as explained by Oldenburg (2000), as being places designed as meeting places and as being dynamic rather than static.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary site for this paper is a neighborhood ritual of shared meals that has taken place every Wednesday for the past fourteen years. This was a 6 month study focusing on semi-structured interviews.
Findings
Characteristics of third places when compared to other arguments for the classification of third place supports the use of space instead of the purpose of a place as the main consideration for the classification of “third place”.
Research limitations/implications
Defining social events within homes as third spaces pushes the traditional third place theory forward. It offers a way for rituals to be explored more deeply through the experiences they offer.
Practical implications
This study asks the reader to pay attention to the periphery where interaction takes place and consider how we frame concepts of third places.
Social implications
Third places create an environment that allows individuals expressions of restraint (to keep the distance between yourself and others), relaxation (to be yourself), freedom (from judgment), reflexivity (when you look back at past events) and vulnerability (opening yourself up to the possibilities that come from interacting with others).
Originality/value
The distinction of third place is not so much in the categorization of the building but rather in the use for which the space serves. Extending these conversations into future research endeavors would be to continue and to extend the discussion/description of third places.
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Fairy tales were first transmitted orally to teach the community to adapt and engage with their surroundings (Zipes, 1987, p. 1). Nonetheless, they have also contributed to…
Abstract
Fairy tales were first transmitted orally to teach the community to adapt and engage with their surroundings (Zipes, 1987, p. 1). Nonetheless, they have also contributed to reproduce traditional gender roles and stereotypes (Meland, 2020, p. 912). Indeed, they encourage ‘females to become passive self-denying, obedient, and self-sacrificial’, and males to ‘be competitive, authoritarian, and power-hungry as well as rational, abstract, and principled’ (Zipes, 1987, p. 3). Likewise, Western fairy tales are characterised by a racial dichotomy manifested through the uses of colour: purity is usually associated with white, while black is related to death. This binary opposition suggests that ‘[w]hiteness is often the invisible, privileged state, whereas any other skin colour is marked and laden with ideological judgments’ (Jorgensen, 2013, p. 56).
Carnival Row (2019–2023) is a neo-Victorian TV series created for Amazon Studios that rewrites Western fairy tales through the lens of postcolonial and gender studies. It is set in a fantastically reimagined Victorian England, where mythological creatures – e.g. fairies or centaurs – are allegorical representations of the ethnic Other. The male protagonist of this series, Philo, is a ‘half-breed’ – half human, half fairy – who passes as human to avoid racial discrimination. However, he evolves from being a male character who rejects his ethnic identity to a heroic figure who eventually embraces his racial origins at the end of Season 1. As I demonstrate in this chapter, Philo's nuanced development arguably subverts traditional depictions of white male heroes in fairy-tale narratives, where they tend to be portrayed as strong, principled and non-complex characters.
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This article adopts Ray Oldenburg's definition of third places and argues that the eight characteristics of third places are demonstrated in the tea houses of Masulih. In many…
Abstract
This article adopts Ray Oldenburg's definition of third places and argues that the eight characteristics of third places are demonstrated in the tea houses of Masulih. In many vernacular communities, participating in informal public gathering places, or third places, is one of the daily routines of local inhabitants. The male inhabitants–including seniors and shopkeepers, as well as the shepherds who migrate seasonally with their herds from plateau of Gilan to Masulih–regularly visit and socialize in Masulih's tea houses. Recently, tourists also have become regular visitors of the tea houses. Qualitative research methods were conducted during extended field work in Masulih during 2008 to 2015. In-depth interviews with local inhabitants placed them as local experts. This allowes for a deeper understanding of the use of the tea houses as third places. In addition, research was conducted through visits to the tea houses at various times of the year in order to record their seasonal usage. While not every vernacular settlement in Iran is a tourist destination, Masulih, with its tea houses integrated in the bazaar, sees regular and steady tourist visitation. Masulih's rich cultural, architectural, and tourist landscape generates a complex research ground. This article suggests that tea houses, as third places, are vital for informal regular gathering of local Masulih residents, seasonal visitors, and tourists.
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MR. JOHN BURNS, President of the Local Government Board, speaking on the Housing of the Working Classes Bill before the Standing Committee of the House of Commons, on 13th May, is…
Abstract
MR. JOHN BURNS, President of the Local Government Board, speaking on the Housing of the Working Classes Bill before the Standing Committee of the House of Commons, on 13th May, is reported to have said that “he believed the time had come when men were tired of drenching the country with Public Libraries, and were beginning to realise that small gardens, parks and open spaces were infinitely better for the people.” We do not contend for one moment that more parks and open spaces are not wanted for the use of the people, but that these should be provided in place of Public Libraries is certainly another matter. If more open spaces be necessary for the physical well‐being of the race, surely libraries are quite as much a necessity for the intellectual equipment of the people. And Public Libraries, if used in an intelligent manner, will certainly help those who use the parks to appreciate their beauties all the more. We can, perhaps, forgive Lord Rosebery for his recent criticisms on libraries, because by reason of his position, and having the great advantage of owning a fine library, he has not really experienced the need for the help a Public Library affords. It is, therefore, an easy matter to criticise from his point of view. But such criticism from John Burns, the self‐made man, and essentially a man from the ranks of the people, is another matter. He is the man who must have found Public Libraries useful to him in his earlier days; indeed, one seems to remember reading somewhere, a short time ago, that Mr. Burns gave an address in which he publicly stated that he owed much to Public Libraries for the help he had received through their agency. We earnestly hope that Mr. Burns did not intend to make so sweeping an assertion as his present words imply. From the point of view of librarianship such drastic criticism as this from such an one as Mr. Burns appears to us to be of serious import, especially as there seems to be a half‐veiled sting in his words which is unduly emphasised by the inclusion of the word “infinitely”—that “open spaces were infinitely better for the people” than Public Libraries. It is tantamount to saying that our work as librarians is of little value or that we have failed in our mission, either of which is very wide of the mark.
This chapter explores social media and athlete mental health and well-being from a sociological perspective. The chapter provides an overview of current literature and encourages…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter explores social media and athlete mental health and well-being from a sociological perspective. The chapter provides an overview of current literature and encourages future research to address the mental health and well-being impacts of social media use among athletes.
Design/methodology/approach
The chapter synthesizes existing literature focusing on sociological approaches to mental health, social media's impact on mental health, and athlete mental health and well-being. Focus is given to the ways social media can impact athlete mental health and well-being through virtual maltreatment and using the platforms for social change and challenging stigmatization.
Findings
Virtual maltreatment typically manifests in the intersectionality between gender, race, and sexual orientation adding to mental health challenges of vulnerable groups. Conversely, athletes could help challenge stigmatization of mental health and use their status to create social change among social groups experiencing higher rates of mental health challenges.
Research limitations/implications
The chapter reveals that sociological perspectives around athlete mental health and well-being related to social media are growing, yet predominately concentrate on publicly available social media content. Therefore, more concentrated efforts are needed to fully understand these impacts in the short and long-term.
Originality/value
The chapter provides one of the first insights on social media and athlete mental health and well-being from a sociological perspective and argues that athletes contend with unique stressors compared to the general population which can exacerbate mental health challenges. The chapter advances that more research is needed to inform practice and help safeguard vulnerable populations of athletes.
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IT is remarkable how great is generally, and often inarticulately, believed to be the influence of books on behaviourism—that the knowledge which books impart can and does…
Abstract
IT is remarkable how great is generally, and often inarticulately, believed to be the influence of books on behaviourism—that the knowledge which books impart can and does stimulate a reader into predictable patterns of behaviour.
OUR article on Colonial Libraries in the March issue has been much appreciated and has already led to a good deal of correspondence on the subject. A letter has reached us from…
Abstract
OUR article on Colonial Libraries in the March issue has been much appreciated and has already led to a good deal of correspondence on the subject. A letter has reached us from Mr. H. Rutherford Purnell, of the Public Library of South Australia at Adelaide, which proves how very deeply he is interested in our affairs over here. We print it on another page and trust that somebody will take it upon themselves to answer his many queries in the same kindly spirit as they are asked.
THE centenary celebration is that of the apparently prosaic public library acts ; it is not the centenary of libraries which are as old as civilization. That is a circumstance…
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THE centenary celebration is that of the apparently prosaic public library acts ; it is not the centenary of libraries which are as old as civilization. That is a circumstance which some may have overlooked in their pride and enthusiasm for the public library. But no real librarian of any type will fail to rejoice in the progress to which the celebration is witness. For that has been immense. We are to have a centenary history of the Public Library Movement—that is not its title—from the Library Association. We do not know if it will be available in London this month; we fear it will not. We do know its author, Mr. W. A. Munford, has spent many months in research for it and that he is a writer with a lucid and individual Style. We contemplate his task with a certain nervousness. Could anyone less than a Carlyle impart into the dry bones of municipal library history that Strew these hundred years, the bones by the wayside that mark out the way, the breath of the spirit that will make them live ? For even Edward Edwards, whose name should be much in the minds and perhaps on the lips of library lovers this month, could scarcely have foreseen the contemporary position ; nor perhaps could Carlyle who asked before our genesis why there should not be in every county town a county library as well as a county gaol. How remote the days when such a question was cogent seem to be now! It behoves us, indeed it honours us, to recall the work of Edwards, of Ewart, Brotherton, Thomas Greenwood, Nicholson, Peter Cowell, Crestadoro, Francis Barrett, Thomas Lyster, J. Y. M. MacAlister, James Duff Brown and, in a later day without mentioning the living, John Ballinger, Ernest A. Baker, L. Stanley Jast, and Potter Briscoe—the list is long. All served the movement we celebrate and all faced a community which had to be convinced. It still has, of course, but our people do now allow libraries a place, more or less respected, in the life of the people. Librarians no longer face the corpse‐cold incredulity of the so‐called educated classes, the indifference of the masses and the actively vicious hostility of local legislators. Except the illuminated few that existed. These were the men who had the faith that an informed people was a happier, more efficient one and that books in widest commonalty spread were the best means of producing such a people. These, with a succession of believing, enduring librarians, persisted in their Struggle with cynic and opponent and brought about the system and the technique we use, modified of course and extended to meet a changing world, but essentially the same. Three names we may especially honour this September, Edward Edwards, who was the sower of the seed; MacAlister, who gained us our Royal Charter ; and John Ballinger, who was the person who most influenced the introduction of the liberating Libraries Act of 1919.