Coffee shops, and many others in the neighborhood and in the world, represent more than just buying a cup of coffee. These are “hipster” coffee shops where young and old go for the experience and ambiance provided. The owners and baristas live and breathe coffee and “have refined coffee to be more than just a caffeine boost [ … J Coffee is a way of life”. Coffee has developed a certain image in the United States. We take “coffee breaks” at work, we “go grab a cup of coffee” with friends or for a first date, we are well acquainted with Starbucks, we incorporate coffee shops into popular media, as in the TV show, Friends, and line up to see a pop-up replica of Central Perk3 Coffee itself is a very popular commodity, generating more trade than any other trade good except petroleum and is the most popular legal drug. Even those of us who do not drink coffee or do not actively participate in coffee culture are affected by it. Coffee culture in this thesis refers to specific habits and social interactions that revolve around coffee and coffee shops. Inviting someone out for coffee, getting coffee “to go” before work in the morning, spending free time and/or working in coffee shops, and joking about coffee addictions are all examples of coffee culture. “The worldwide coffee culture is almost a cult, “There are blogs and news groups on the subject, along with innumerable websites, and Starbucks outlets seem to populate every street corner, vying for space with other coffeehouses and chains.” The fact that coffee shops indicates how a big portion of coffee culture comes from the coffee shop. Coffee shop chains grew more than 10% annually between 2000 and 2004, which was before the increase in independent coffee shops in the recent decade. The coffee shop has been hailed as a “third place,” or the place one frequents that is not work or home. It also has a rich history with roots in the early coffeehouses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which have passed down the ideals of the coffee shop as a place for public discourse and the formation of a democratic public sphere.
This study traces the development of the coffee shop from the first coffeehouses and how the coffee shop has become a center for urban sociability. In order to contextualize and unpack the social meaning and uses of a coffee shop, I use theories of public and private place, placemaking, and sociability, with an emphasis on third places and their role in the urban public sphere. “The places where people meet to drink coffee have facilitated the development of what is now typically and stereotypically construed as the public realm,” situating coffee shops in the discussion of public and private space. The study then build on this to investigate how the dichotomy between public and private space is mediated by third places, with the coffee shop as an example of a space that people think of as a third place.
Ever since Ancient Greece, Western cultures and nations have honored the ideal of an open public sphere where property-owning men could come together to discuss current events and politics. Today, however, society is much more open in the West than ever before because of the movements for racial and gender equality, as well as the rise of the internet. Do we need a bigger public sphere? Or do we just need an escape from the physical spaces of home and work? The internet has become more of the idealized public sphere in the United States than basically any public space can be. In the age of the internet, our needs have changed. As a society, the role of the public sphere has changed and it is accessible to almost anyone with an internet connection, whether that be from a personal device or from a public library computer. Therefore, the traditionally public places such as parks and plazas fulfill different needs. In the world of the home-work dichotomy, we are more in need of places to be sociable without the burdens of-full hospitality than we are of a place to express our ideas and engage with democratic discourse. The coffee shop is built for sociability and designed for contemporary urban life. Though many are quick to call it a third place, the coffee shop does not fit Oldenburg’s (1989) vision of a third place because society has changed enough since the 1970s that many of his ideas are antiquated, especially in cosmopolitan centers. Young people in small apartments need living rooms. Gender mixing is nonnal and nothing of note. More people are choosing to get married later. Entreprepreneurs need offices. Tourists need wifi. It is clear that the society in which we live in the United States requires a revisioning of the meanings of the public sphere and the third place.
Coffee shops, coffeehouses, cafes, and coffee bars, have existed for centuries, although research into their social meanings seems to have begun in the 1970s. The “third wave” coffee shops are attracting attention these days as social institutions based on good tasting, ethically sourced coffee. The methods I used in my research include reviewing the literature on public and private places, analyzing coffee shop history, examining media representations of coffee culture, and observing in coffee shops in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Interviews and surveys would provide depth and an additional check on my observations. Unfortunately, these methods are beyond the scope of this thesis as the time frame to gather data was too short for me to establish the relationships necessary for those methodologies. However, in the past ten years, studies of coffee shops have been published that enable me to embark on a comparative study to understand the social meaning and uses of coffee shops in urban life.
Coffee shops have expanded and taken on new meanings in recent years. The meanings that people derive from and ascribe to coffee shops can be seen in the media, in marketing, and in how they use the space. I look at online memes and references to habits and stereotypes about coffee, as well analyzing observational data regarding how and for what purpose people use coffee shops.
Mr. Rows Namoura Coffee 
Coffee Shops: Exploring Urban Sociability and Social Class in the Intersection of Public and Private Space
Coffee shops, and many others in the neighborhood and in the world, represent more than just buying a cup of coffee. These are “hipster” coffee shops where young and old go for the experience and ambiance provided. The owners and baristas live and breathe coffee and “have refined coffee to be more than just a caffeine boost [ … J Coffee is a way of life”. Coffee has developed a certain image in the United States. We take “coffee breaks” at work, we “go grab a cup of coffee” with friends or for a first date, we are well acquainted with Starbucks, we incorporate coffee shops into popular media, as in the TV show, Friends, and line up to see a pop-up replica of Central Perk3 Coffee itself is a very popular commodity, generating more trade than any other trade good except petroleum and is the most popular legal drug. Even those of us who do not drink coffee or do not actively participate in coffee culture are affected by it. Coffee culture in this thesis refers to specific habits and social interactions that revolve around coffee and coffee shops. Inviting someone out for coffee, getting coffee “to go” before work in the morning, spending free time and/or working in coffee shops, and joking about coffee addictions are all examples of coffee culture. “The worldwide coffee culture is almost a cult, “There are blogs and news groups on the subject, along with innumerable websites, and Starbucks outlets seem to populate every street corner, vying for space with other coffeehouses and chains.” The fact that coffee shops indicates how a big portion of coffee culture comes from the coffee shop. Coffee shop chains grew more than 10% annually between 2000 and 2004, which was before the increase in independent coffee shops in the recent decade. The coffee shop has been hailed as a “third place,” or the place one frequents that is not work or home. It also has a rich history with roots in the early coffeehouses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which have passed down the ideals of the coffee shop as a place for public discourse and the formation of a democratic public sphere.
This study traces the development of the coffee shop from the first coffeehouses and how the coffee shop has become a center for urban sociability. In order to contextualize and unpack the social meaning and uses of a coffee shop, I use theories of public and private place, placemaking, and sociability, with an emphasis on third places and their role in the urban public sphere. “The places where people meet to drink coffee have facilitated the development of what is now typically and stereotypically construed as the public realm,” situating coffee shops in the discussion of public and private space. The study then build on this to investigate how the dichotomy between public and private space is mediated by third places, with the coffee shop as an example of a space that people think of as a third place.
Ever since Ancient Greece, Western cultures and nations have honored the ideal of an open public sphere where property-owning men could come together to discuss current events and politics. Today, however, society is much more open in the West than ever before because of the movements for racial and gender equality, as well as the rise of the internet. Do we need a bigger public sphere? Or do we just need an escape from the physical spaces of home and work? The internet has become more of the idealized public sphere in the United States than basically any public space can be. In the age of the internet, our needs have changed. As a society, the role of the public sphere has changed and it is accessible to almost anyone with an internet connection, whether that be from a personal device or from a public library computer. Therefore, the traditionally public places such as parks and plazas fulfill different needs. In the world of the home-work dichotomy, we are more in need of places to be sociable without the burdens of-full hospitality than we are of a place to express our ideas and engage with democratic discourse. The coffee shop is built for sociability and designed for contemporary urban life. Though many are quick to call it a third place, the coffee shop does not fit Oldenburg’s (1989) vision of a third place because society has changed enough since the 1970s that many of his ideas are antiquated, especially in cosmopolitan centers. Young people in small apartments need living rooms. Gender mixing is nonnal and nothing of note. More people are choosing to get married later. Entreprepreneurs need offices. Tourists need wifi. It is clear that the society in which we live in the United States requires a revisioning of the meanings of the public sphere and the third place.
Coffee shops, coffeehouses, cafes, and coffee bars, have existed for centuries, although research into their social meanings seems to have begun in the 1970s. The “third wave” coffee shops are attracting attention these days as social institutions based on good tasting, ethically sourced coffee. The methods I used in my research include reviewing the literature on public and private places, analyzing coffee shop history, examining media representations of coffee culture, and observing in coffee shops in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Interviews and surveys would provide depth and an additional check on my observations. Unfortunately, these methods are beyond the scope of this thesis as the time frame to gather data was too short for me to establish the relationships necessary for those methodologies. However, in the past ten years, studies of coffee shops have been published that enable me to embark on a comparative study to understand the social meaning and uses of coffee shops in urban life.
Coffee shops have expanded and taken on new meanings in recent years. The meanings that people derive from and ascribe to coffee shops can be seen in the media, in marketing, and in how they use the space. I look at online memes and references to habits and stereotypes about coffee, as well analyzing observational data regarding how and for what purpose people use coffee shops.
Rose Pozos-Brewer (2015) Coffee Shops: Exploring Urban Sociability and Social Class in the Intersection of Public and Private Space
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