Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Charismatic Dog And Public Space: Are Dog Parks A Third Place?, Lori Dynette Lee

Public Affairs Dissertations

Exiting research supports dog parks as a third place based on the ability of dog-supportive public space to bring people together informally outside home and work (Graham and Glover, 2014), yet offers little clarity in terms of strength of interaction. Ray Oldenburg (1989), the originator of the notion of third place, stresses the importance of certain contexts in supporting repeat encounters, which he explains are of crucial importance to effective third places, while lamenting their absence in suburban America. A careful review of his work in this dissertation raises the question, is a dog park within a suburban Dallas context …