Second Life of Third Places

One of the main characteristics of Oldenburg’s concept of Third Places is the condition of being a neutral space, friendly to everyone regardless of social status, age or gender. The concept, in its intended course, enables social activities that go beyond easily available cognitive prescriptions. Consequently, Third Places seem to play an important role in the process of formation of communities. They can be perceived as „places in between”; on the borderline of domestic intimacy and the imposed sterility of the workplace. There is an atmosphere of „freedom from” socialization and „freedom to” engage in relations with „familiar strangers” (Milgram, 1977). This essay aims to demonstrate the possibility of existence the virtual third places and present the argument that the way in which such social spaces develop and operate is a key factor in the implementation and functioning of virtual urban spaces. Self-determined social world Second Life will serve as an example.

Second Life of Third Places

One of the main characteristics of Oldenburg’s concept of Third Places is the condition of being a neutral space, friendly to everyone regardless of social status, age or gender. The concept, in its intended course, enables social activities that go beyond easily available cognitive prescriptions. Consequently, Third Places seem to play an important role in the process of formation of communities. They can be perceived as „places in between”; on the borderline of domestic intimacy and the imposed sterility of the workplace. There is an atmosphere of „freedom from” socialization and „freedom to” engage in relations with „familiar strangers” (Milgram, 1977). This essay aims to demonstrate the possibility of existence the virtual third places and present the argument that the way in which such social spaces develop and operate is a key factor in the implementation and functioning of virtual urban spaces. Self-determined social world Second Life will serve as an example.

A Qualitative Study on Nudging and Palliative Care: “An Attractive but Misleading Concept”

The debate about the ethical decision-making process in the healthcare context has been enriched with a theory called “nudging”, which has been defined as the framing of information that can significantly influence behaviour without restricting choice. The literature shows very limited data on the opinion and experience of palliative care healthcare professionals on the use of nudging techniques in their care setting. The aim of this study is to explore the beliefs of experienced palliative care professionals towards nudging. We performed a qualitative study using textual data collected through a focus group. It was audio-recorded, and the transcripts were subjected to a thematic analysis. It was performed within an oncological research hospital with a small and multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals specialised in PC. Participants reported two overarching positions grounded in two main themes: (1) translating nudging in the PC setting and (2) towards a neutral space. The participants found few justifications for the use of nudging in the PC field, even if it can be very attractive and reassuring. Participants also expressed concerns about the excessive risk of developing pure paternalism.

Extending Expectancy Theory to Food Intake: Effect of a Simulated Fast-Food Restaurant on Highly and Minimally Processed Food Expectancies

Unhealthy diets are widespread and linked to a number of detrimental clinical outcomes. The current preregistered experiment extended expectancy theory into the study of food intake; specifically, we tested whether a fast-food restaurant affects food expectancies, or the emotions one expects to feel while eating highly processed foods (e.g., pizza) and minimally processed foods (e.g., carrots). Participants ( N = 200, mean age = 18.79 years) entered a simulated fast-food restaurant or a neutral space, completed questionnaires, and engaged in a bogus taste test. The simulated fast-food restaurant increased positive highly processed food expectancies ( d = 0.29). Palatable eating coping motives scores did not moderate the effect; however, this clinically relevant pattern of eating behavior was associated with greater positive highly processed food expectancies. In addition, there was an indirect effect of the fast-food restaurant on ad libitum food intake through positive highly processed food expectancies. Reducing positive highly processed food expectancies may improve diet, which may broadly affect health.

Treatment Decisions and the Therapeutic Process

This chapter considers the challenges of treatment decision-making for patients with incurable disease and the benefits of having a neutral space for reflection. Though respect for patients’ autonomy, shared decision-making, and informed consent are considered to be central to modern healthcare, adherence to these principles may seem illusory when patients are desperate and when the risks and benefits of treatment are ambiguous. The potential challenges to patient autonomy and informed consent are explored in this chapter, with particular reference to the context of phase one trials. In this setting, the intent of the treatment may easily be misconstrued by patients (therapeutic misconception) and the chances of benefits versus risks incorrectly estimated by them (therapeutic misestimation). This chapter explores the value of Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) in providing a neutral space for reflection and in allowing patients to explore their preferences regarding treatment while also considering the views of their healthcare providers and family members.

Lessons Learned

This chapter recounts societal aspirations for families as postfeminist, gender-neutral spaces at the beginning of the twenty-first century that have outpaced the actual rate of social change, particularly in heterosexual families. It points out how gendered patterns in the division of household labor and workplace disadvantage remain stubbornly entrenched. It also confirms parenting as the increasingly preferred gender-neutral label for the multifaceted work of providing care to children. The chapter explores how navigating contemporary motherhood meant navigating a discursively gender-neutral space as a person whose lived experience and interactions with social institutions are in fact quite gendered. It discusses the tensions between gender-neutral aspirations and discourse and gendered institutions, which shape the experiences of mothers without primary custody of their children.

An un/familiar space: children and parents as collaborators in autoethnographic family research

This paper, coauthored by mother and son (aged 10 at the time of writing, 12 at time of revisions), reports on the collaborative research experience during a 2.5-year-long autoethnographic study, which focused on bringing back the family heritage language after a 2-year break. Through a joint research diary, we regularly and rigorously chronicled both language-related conversations and our emotions linked to the process of bringing back the heritage language. Frustration, guilt, joy, exasperation, and pride were jointly discussed via what we call an un/familiar space. This paper explores the evolution of this space, linking it to Bhabha’s third space theory and Gadamer’s fusion of horizons. We present the un/familiar space both as an epistemological stance and as a methodological tool for intergenerational autoethnography, enabling both parents and children to engage with each other in a more neutral space, deliberately removed from traditional family roles. Further, we critically engage with the role of children as co-creators of knowledge within this space, contributing longitudinal data of co-construction and critical reflection from two generations to the research community.

Residential coexistence: Anonymity, etiquette and proximity in high-rise living

This paper offers a new perspective on everyday life in an ethno-nationally mixed vertical urban setting. It focuses on the cultivation of a shared residential identity that, seemingly, can overcome the binational divide. Drawing on interviews with Jewish and Arab residents in a new middle-class high-rise complex (HRC) in Haifa, Israel, we illustrate that Arabs and Jews share many reasons for living in the HRC, reflecting similarities between these populations that are often ignored. Moreover, the physical form of the complex – including its newness and its modern, universal design – makes it a relatively neutral space free from a particular ethno-national or religious identity. Finally, while the relevant literature largely assumes that ‘anonymity’ in high-rises is a negative force, the sense of privacy it affords allows residents to manage social proximity and cultivate a philosophy of ‘live and let live’.

The Seminar in Deconstruction

In this article the author explores how the problem of the seminar enters into the work of Jacques Derrida. He shows how it emerges not only within the context of the teaching institution but also as a conceptual thematic with a history far in excess of the educational institutions of France. As early as 1968 and as late as 2003, the word, concept, figure, and institution of “the seminar” was one that Derrida worked to define and problematize. The author thus asks how Derrida’s autobiographical relationship with the institution of the seminar both influenced and was influenced by what one might call the philosophical problem of the seminar. As Derrida points out on a number of occasions, the seminar is not a neutral space. Indeed, it is a particularly ambivalent one, as early discussions of it in “Plato’s Pharmacy” and Clang show. In appropriating the form, not only for his teaching but also as a problematic of the seminars that he gave, the author argues that Derrida precisely embraced the ambivalence of a space at once caught up in the politics of reproduction, hegemony, and tradition and, to that very extent, the site of a potential “event.”

On Valery Podoroga’s Analytical Anthropology of the Landscape

In present article the concept of landscape is considered to be one of the key concepts of analytical anthropology which is Valeria Podoroga’s complex investigation program of art, literature and philosophy. Notion of landscape defines analytical strategy chosen by the Russian philosopher for study on west European philosophy of the XIX–XX centuries. The landscape is considered as a complex spatial notion which possesses geographic, sensual, cultural, historical, and topological dimensions. Emphasis is placed on the topological-communicative function of the landscape, which provides a form of expression for philosophical ideas. This function is described by examples from the texts of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger which are the objects of Podoroga’s analysis. In conclusion landscape is considered as a universal “neutral space” which makes possible to transmit a unique poetic-philosophical experience to the reader and discussed abilities using analytical anthropology for the study of new material.