Third Places and European Public Authorities
by the ANCT (Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires)
“Third Places and European Public Authorities” is the fruit of an initiative organized by the ANCT (Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires), in partnership with “France Tiers-Lieux”, that was held in Montpellier in June 2023, bringing together for the first time more than 300 third-place users from several European countries and gathering highlight an emerging reality: third places, conceptualized by an American sociologist: Oldenburg, in 1989, have been a European territorial reality since the 2000s, and are clearly growing since the health-crisis in Europe. From chitalishte in Romania to rural third places in Wallonia, from coworking in Catalonia to fablabs in Central Europe and France, these spaces share a common citizen DNA: hybrid, inclusive and deeply rooted in the territories.
This publication presents the contributions of European researchers and observers who bear witness to the way in which third places embody a new way of “doing things together”, and, in its eight chapters, presents illustrations of third places, enabling us to see them as being at the heart of new contributions to the development of territories, but also prey to a multiplicity of challenges.
