Sociology: Critical Review of Third Places and Social Life of Streets

This report presents a critical review of Mehta and Bosson's article, "Third Places and the Social Life of Streets." The review begins with a concise summary of the article, which defines third places as areas of refuge outside of work or home where people gather. The authors investigate the urban design characteristics that distinguish these places and support social interaction. The review then provides a critical analysis, examining the thoroughness of the literature coverage, the appropriateness of the materials used, and the organization of the research. It assesses whether the reading appears unbiased and if it considers different viewpoints. The analysis also discusses the study's strengths, such as its focus on personalization, permeability, seating, and shelter. The review points out the limitations, including the restricted geographical scope of the study. The review concludes with the implications of the findings for community planning and urban design, highlighting the importance of third places in fostering social connections and community development. The report also acknowledges the authors' policy suggestions and emphasizes the significance of their research for economic development and community well-being.

Running Head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the Student
University Name
Author Note

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Mehta and Bosson (2009) in their research article; Third places and the social life of streets in
the journal article, ‘Environment and Behaviour’ explained the definition of third place ass the
area of refuge other than the workplace or home where people regularly visits and tend to
commune with neighbours, friends and even the strangers. The article by the authors examines
the four urban design characteristics that distinguish the third place business from the other
business of the main street. The authors of the article explained the study conducted at the main
streets in two of the major cities and one in the town of Massachusetts.
The literature related to the social sciences has been emphasizing the role related to the social
qualities in the public spaces within the place making and place attachment. With these impacts
of the efforts, the research study captured the qualities in the environment for creating a sense of
place with some of the desirable spaces for the people. The authors of the research study
explained the characteristics that supports the social nature or the behaviour. This has been done
for understanding the attraction of the people to public spaces and the support towards social
activities. The research study used the knowledge from the social sciences and the urban design
researches to broaden the design province with inducing the beginning of the evaluation of social
and physical aspects of the environment towards the understanding of the needs of the user. The
coverage of the literature seemed to be through the topic with the citation of the literature.
Relying over mainly the journal articles and the research reports, this study by the authors
furthermore utilised primary sources and interviews for the interpretation of the research aims
and objectives.
The readings that has been used for the review of literature in the research study has appeared to
be unbiased and considered different sides of the argument. The findings of the research study
as stated by authors points towards the characteristics of the environment that are being placed

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on the basis of the people and some of the results related to the characterises of the physical
environments and some of the other consequences of the management and human actions.
Regarding the place based characteristics, some have been under the control of the private and
the public authorities where the others are being controlled by the private and the public
authorities and are being managed by the business owners and the individual property (Mehta
and Bosson 2009). The authors of the research study highlighted four of the major physical
characteristics which are majorly under the control of the owners of the business. The weakness
of the article of study lies on the fact that the article failed to highlight some of the other physical
characteristics supporting human actions and interactions which are not under the control of the
owners of the business. The research study explained personalization as the act of modifying the
physical environment and the expression towards the territory of claiming and the nurturing of
territory. Other factors such as the permeability, seating, shelter were being defined in the
research study by the author.
This particular research study was conducted in the city of Cambridge. For each of the study are
of research, a flyer was being designed for seeking participation in the process of interview. For
the aim or the purpose of the study, the authors of the research study defined the third place and
the business in the main street that was being identified as the place of community gathering by
people working in the neighbourhood (Mehta and Bosson 2009). For this research study, the
authors conducted face to face interview for gathering of in-depth data that will reveal and help
in the understanding of the perceptions, feeling and the attitudes for the environment of the street
and business. The main aim or the purpose of the collection of the primary data was to obtain
relevant information from people and their activities in the Main Street. The research study
furthermore used visual surveys for recording four of the major characteristics of the business.

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This includes personalization of street front, seating over the street, business permeability and
the shelter offered by business through the provisions of awning canopies and more. The authors
of the study in their research paper focused mainly over the two of the major characteristics; that
is the shelter and eating which were largely objectified and measured.
As per the interviews and the observations regarding the data collection procedure in the research
paper, the findings of the research study suggested that the third place has been the destinations
to go to, meet neighbours and friends, gather, and socialize and more. The findings of the study
furthermore illustrated over the fact that the choice of the third paces were entirely based on the
duration of the resident to stay in the neighbourhood, class and ages that resulted in various of
the places for various of the groups in the neighbourhood (Mehta and Bosson 2009). The
readings of the review of literature concluded with a reasonable synopsis of the main learning
from the study of the research. The research summarizes on the note that although the
permeability and personalization are some of the clear essential features of the third places, these
characteristics within themselves cannot fully explain the appeal of the third places. One of the
major limitations that the authors of the research study faced is the limited location or area of
centre city neighbourhoods. The authors of the research study implemented policy suggestions
stating the recommendation of the community development programs supporting the small
business and the third places for the social benefit of the people. The findings of the research
study have rigorous implications for community planning, urban design and policies related to
economic development.

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References
Mehta, V. and Bosson, J.K., 2009. Third places and the social life of streets. Environment and
Behavior, 42(6), pp.779-805.