The Coffee Shop: Social and Physical factors Influencing ...

1 The Coffee Shop: Social and Physical factors Influencing Place Attachment Lisa Waxman, , Florida State University Abstract This study explored the characteristics that encourage gathering behavior and contribute to place attachment in selected Coffee shops in the context of literature suggesting Social gathering places contribute to Social capital. These gathering places, with the potential to enhance community in this manner, have been called third places. The study was qualitative in nature and included the research techniques of visual documentation, observation and behavioral mapping, interview, and survey. A transactional approach to this study was chosen to better understand the meaning of the person-environment relationship. Each Coffee shop was observed for twenty-five hours for a total of seventy-five hours. Eighteen interviews were conducted and surveys were collected from 94 patrons to reveal patron attitudes toward the Physical and Social aspects of the Coffee shop as well as their feelings regarding the community in which they live.

2 The key findings regarding the Physical characteristics showed the top five design considerations included: cleanliness, appealing aroma, adequate lighting, comfortable furniture, and a view to the outside. A number of themes emerged related to people, their activities, and their feelings and attitudes regarding the Coffee shop. Each Coffee shop was found to have a unique Social climate and culture related to sense of belonging, territoriality and ownership, productivity and personal growth, opportunity for socialization, support and networking, and sense of community. Regarding feelings of community, survey findings from Coffee shops patrons showed a positive correlation between length of patronage and their sense of attachment to their community. Introduction (p. 19). Putnam expressed concern that the decrease in Researchers Unger and Wandersman (1985) discussed community activity and community sharing results in the importance of the community to the human Social , the shrinking of Social capital which threatens our civic emotional, and cognitive experiences.

3 Rivlin (1987) and personal health. explained that the connections to community create a bond between people and place in which people and In The Great Good Place, author Ray Oldenburg (1999). place are molded into a whole. Although the value of emphasized the importance of neighborhood gathering place and community seems clear, there has been much places in enhancing the lives of people. Oldenburg de- Social commentary regarding the decreasing ability of fined these gathering places as third places, and further people to connect with their communities and the peo- explained that these places are not home or work, but ple who live among them (Fleming and Von Tscharner, the places that help get people through the day. Olden- 1987; Lippard, 1997; Putnam, 2000: Stumpf, 1998). In burg describes the third place as a generic designation Bowling Alone, which addressed the collapse and re- for a great variety of public places that host the regu- vival of American community, Putnam (2000) discussed lar, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gath- the increasing disconnect from family, friends, neigh- erings of individuals beyond the realms of home and bors, and Social structure.

4 He reviewed the concept of work (p. 16). Third places provide a place to connect Social capital, which he defined as the connections with the people in communities as well as a place to ex- among individuals Social networks and the norms of change ideas and news. However, Oldenburg expressed reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them concern that many third places are disappearing, and Journal of Interior Design 35 Volume 31 Number 3 2006. The Coffee Shop: Social and Physical factors Influencing Place Attachment Waxman The experience of place is unique to each individual and is directly related to his or her lived experiences. Attachment to place is a set of feelings that emotionally binds people to a particular place. that in the United States, the third place has become This research on place and place attachment points to a distant third. He raised the question of how this de- the value of place in the lives of people.

5 This paper will crease in the availability of community gathering places expand on this research by exploring the variables that impacts the lives of people. What are the consequences contribute to gathering behavior and place attachment when communities lack places to gather with neigh- in third places, specifically Coffee shops. The sites cho- bors, friends, and to mingle with the familiar strangers sen for study included three selected Coffee shops in a who hold the potential for new friendships, relation- mid-size city in the southeastern United States. The pur- ships, and ultimately the growth of the Social capital in pose of this study was to see what qualities, both physi- a community? cal and Social , encourage people to gather in those cof- fee shops and develop an attachment to those places. Oldenburg (1999) explained that most third places draw their identity from the beverages they serve.

6 His- Literature Review torically, Coffee houses have provided places for Social Due to the availability of literature on the Social /psy- intercourse and conversation, as well as political debate chological studies of place, and a lack of literature on (Pendergrast, 1999). They have also served as places the design of Social gathering places, this review of liter- where people could gather, speak freely, and mingle with ature will focus primarily on studies of place and place others from their communities (Oldenburg, 1999). For attachment. many people, the Coffee shop serves as a third place, a place to regularly interact with fellow community mem- The experience of place is unique to each individual and bers. In the United States, from 2000 to 2004, fast food is directly related to his or her lived experiences. Attach- chains grew at a rate of 2% per year, while Coffee shop ment to place is a set of feelings that emotionally binds chains grew more than 10% annually (Holmes, 2004).

7 People to a particular place. Places root us to the In 2004, forty-two percent of adults in the United States earth, to our own history and memories, to our families aged 18-34 purchased their Coffee at a Coffee shop with and larger community (Cooper-Marcus & Frances, 48% consuming the beverage on the premises. These 1998, p. xi). Understanding the concept of place pro- numbers seem to indicate that the Coffee shop is about vides an important framework for understanding the more than just Coffee ; perhaps the place in which it is way people form relationships with places. consumed has significance in itself. When relationships develop between people and places, Scholars studying place attachment report that attach- the result is often a feeling of place attachment. Low ment to place comes about through a set of related phe- (1992) stated, Place attachment is the symbolic re- nomenon rather than a singular phenomenon (Low & lationship formed by people giving culturally shared Altman, 1992).

8 In addition, a number of scholars have emotional/affective meanings to a particular space or viewed the concept of place attachment in a transaction- piece of land that provides the basis for the individual's al framework involving psychological, Social , and tem- and group's understanding of and relation to the envi- poral experiences (Stokols & Shumaker, 1981; Brown ronment (p. 165). Proshansky, Fabian, and Kaminoff and Perkins, 1992; Altman & Rogoff, 1987). A defini- (1983) described place attachment as involving the in- tion by Brown and Perkins (1992) states, Place attach- terplay of emotions, knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors ment involves positively experienced bonds, sometimes in reference to a place. occurring without awareness, that are developed over time from the behavioral, affective, and cognitive ties Place attachment refers to the idea that people develop between individuals and/or groups and their sociophys- special bonds with certain settings that hold deep mean- ical environment (p.)

9 284). ing to the individual (Low & Altman, 1992). The word Volume 31 Number 3 2006 36 Journal of Interior Design The Coffee Shop: Social and Physical factors Influencing Place Attachment Waxman Place attachment has the potential to offer predictability in a daily routine, a place to relax from the more formal roles of life, and the opportunity for control in various areas of life (Low & Altman, 1992). attachment refers to affect while the word place re- Taylor (1983) propose a person-environment congru- fers to the environmental settings to which people are ence model of place attachment. This model suggests emotionally and culturally attached (Low & Altman, that place attachment involves expectations of stabil- 1992, p. 5). Affect, emotion, and feeling are central to ity, feelings of positive affect, greater knowledge of the the concept of place attachment and appear consistently locale, and behaviors that serve to maintain or enhance in studies on this topic.

10 Relph (1976) believed that to the location (p. 237). This model includes the person's be inside a place is to belong and identify with it. Tuan Social networks as a contributor to place attachment. (1980) suggested the existence of a state of rootedness in which one's personality merges with one's place. He The importance of Social relationships that occur in wrote that the primary function of place is to engender places must not be overlooked and may enhance the a sense of belonging and attachment. activity of people-place bonding (Chawla, 1992). The Social involvement of family, friends, community, and Traditional definitions of place attachment view it as culture may be equally, or more important, than the an outcome, as feeling of being attached (Tuan, 1974). place alone (Cooper-Marcus, 1992). Altman and Low However, Harris, Brown, and Werner (1996) empha- (1992) emphasized the importance of people in inter- sized place attachment as both the feeling of being at- personal, community, cultural, and Social relationships tached and the process of becoming attached, which in- that are essential to place experiences.