The impact of third places on community quality of life

Authors

Leo Wayne Jeffres, Cleveland State UniversityFollow
Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Cleveland State UniversityFollow
Guowei Jian, Cleveland State UniversityFollow
Mary F. Casey, Cleveland State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2009

Publication Title

Applied Research in Quality of Life

Abstract

Older cities struggling with issues of survival focus on jobs and the economy, but competition requires all cities to pay attention to the quality of life that attracts residents. Creating such an inviting environment includes “third places” that foster community and communication among people outside of home and work, yet we have little empirical evidence that speaks to the subject, or their importance for a community’s quality of life. Here we report on a national U.S. survey that asked people to identify such places in their community, producing a wide variety of “third places” that ranged from the most popular community centers, coffee shops and restaurants to parks and malls. While a few relationships are found between population/diversity and the popularity of particular third places, the most important result confirms a hypothesized relationship between perceptions that third places are accessible in their community and the perceived quality of life.

DOI

10.1007/s11482-009-9084-8

Version

Postprint

Publisher's Statement

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11482-009-9084-8

Recommended Citation

Jeffres, L. W., Bracken, C. C., Jian, G., & Casey, M. F. (2009). The impact of third places on community quality of life. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 4, 333-345. doi:10.1007/s11482-009-9084-8

Volume

4