Public life
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
Akin to the Third Place concept, the informal public life is notably absent in the United States. Basically, in America, there's work and home and communal gathering centers, (places like village inns, neighborhood pubs) are not so common. Oldenburg likens the American experience to a routine of shuffling "between the 'womb' and the 'rat race' in a constricted pattern of daily life that easily generates the familiar desire to 'get away from it all'." (Oldenburg, The Great Good Place, p. 9)
