Café Society

by Scambler, Graham; Tjora, Aksel

• ISBN13: 9781137275929
• ISBN10: 1137275928
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-11-07
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Cafés and coffee shops have become core venues in the urban landscape, places to be social, chat with friends or colleagues, take a break or relax, or work in companionable solitude. In this edited volume, researchers from a range of social sciences and countries examine the practices, histories, and meanings of cafés, thus contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the contemporary café. The essays that make up this text are as heterogeneous as they are complementary; they are at once a synthesis of what we know and an invitation to investigate further the concept of a 'café society'.

Author Biography

Aksel Tjora is Professor of Sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norway. His research is focused on the interactional production of community, in various areas; in organisations, between users of technologies, in relation to health-care delivery, in public space, and in relation to architecture and music. Tjora is also the editor of The Norwegian Journal of Sociology.

Graham Scambler is Professor of Medical Sociology at University College London, UK. He is author or editor of a dozen books on social theory, health and health care, sex work and sport, as well as over a hundred chapters and articles. He is a founding editor of the international journal Social Theory and Health. He is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The sociology of the café
1. he café as a 'third place'; Ray Oldenburg
2. Heart of Urbanism. The Café - A Cultural History; Bodil Stenseth
3. The Theory of the Café Central and the Practice of the Café Peripheral: Aspirational and Abject Infrastructures of Sociability on the European Periphery; Paul Manning
4. Cafés, Third Places and the Enabling Sector of Civil Society ; Graham Scambler
5. The Café Community; Ida Marie Henriksen, Tomas Moe Skølsvold, and Ingeborg Grønning
6. Communal awareness in the urban cafe; Aksel Tjora
7. Becoming a barista; Eric Laurier
8. Community and social interaction in the wireless city: wi-fi use in public and semi-public spaces; Keith N. Hampton and Neeti Gupta
9. Design for solitude; Erling Dokk Holm
10. The City, the Café and the Public Realm in Australia; Peter Walters and Alex Broom