Third Places for Strengthening Sustainability and Democracy in Urban Development

Goals and objectives

The project aims to identify and analyze the potential and barriers of “third places” in promoting democracy, participation, and sustainability, using libraries and community centers as examples in three case cities of varying sizes in Thuringia. 

In close collaboration with practice partners and other local stakeholders from the case cities of Erfurt, Eisenach, and Schmalkalden, analog and digital formats for experimentation, exchange, and participation will be developed, tested, and evaluated. At the same time, the perspectives of different user groups as well as local practice partners will be incorporated to understand participation, interaction, and co-creation from various angles. The focus will be particularly on the extent to which these experimental, exchange, and participatory formats are suitable for reaching population groups that have often been inadequately addressed to date.

The research findings will be compiled into a toolbox titled “Third Places for Sustainability and Democracy” and made available to a broad professional audience. Additionally, key objectives include expanding and further developing long-term collaborations between practice partners, other urban and regional stakeholders, and the university, as well as facilitating continuity in practice, in further applied research, and beyond.

Innovation Approach

The project “Third Places for Strengthening Sustainability and Democracy” takes an innovative approach to the use and further development of libraries and community centers as “third places.” It explores the potential of “third places” for sustainability and democratic participation, examines the interconnection between democratic participation and sustainability, leverages co-creation with practice and cooperation partners, and incorporates innovative formats for experimentation, exchange, and participation with an expanded spatial perspective in both analog (buildings, neighborhoods, public open spaces) and digital (metaverse) spaces. The research project is highly relevant not only at the local level but also at the state and federal levels. Close collaboration with practice partners ensures that the approaches developed are application-oriented and support real transformation processes in libraries and community centers.

Areas of responsibility

The project will begin with a systematic literature review examining the current state of research on “third places” and their contribution to sustainability and democracy. In addition, examples of best practices from national and international contexts will be identified and analyzed.

Building on this, three case studies (Erfurt, Eisenach, and Schmalkalden) will examine specific institutional, spatial, and organizational conditions, as well as existing forms of use and participation. In addition, expert interviews and further qualitative surveys will be conducted to incorporate perspectives from both practice and academia.

The results of the analyses form the basis for the development, implementation, and evaluation of analog and digital participation and exchange formats in cooperation with the practice partners. The findings will ultimately be compiled into a toolbox as well as in academic and practice-oriented publications. Regional and nationwide dissemination will additionally take place through (supra)regional multipliers, workshops, specialist events, and educational formats.

Scientific value

The project contributes to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on ‘third places’ as social, cultural and democratic infrastructures. It expands on existing research approaches by linking analogue and digital participatory formats and empirically investigating their potential for sustainability, democracy and social participation. Through the combination of literature reviews, (inter)national examples of good practice, case studies, and the co-creative development and testing of innovative formats, new insights are gained into the mechanisms of action, potential and barriers of ‘third places’. In this way, the project contributes both to the theoretical advancement of the research field and to the practice-oriented design of sustainable social infrastructures. Academic contributions will be made through publications in relevant (inter)national journals and conference papers.