The Importance of Preserving Physical ‘Third Places’ in Southeast Asia

In his book The Great Good Place (1989), sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” to identify social environments that are separate from home (the “first place”) and work (the “second place”). Third places serve as accessible, informal settings that offer people freedom from obligations and rigid structures. Oldenburg argued that this helps to foster civic engagement, mental wellbeing and creativity, thus binding communities with a strong, unified sense of belonging. How have physical third places in Southeast Asia developed or diminished, and what does this mean for local communities throughout the region?

From libraries, theatres, and parks to pasar malam (night markets), hawker centres and cafés, physical third places have long defined life and leisure in Southeast Asia, reflecting the region’s dense urban living and rich communal cultures. However, as cities have expanded while development has accelerated, land has become scarcer and more valuable. Changing lifestyles have reshaped how people linger and belong: the physical third places that once anchored regional neighbourhoods are now thinning out or disappearing altogether.

With ASEAN aiming to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2045, economic growth has become a bigger priority for most Southeast Asian countries. Development and market needs force a commercial logic when governments shape urban spaces, thus squeezing out or limiting physical third places. In Kuala Lumpur, for instance, there is an increasing lack of open places, as parks and recreational areas shrink in the face of high-density development in areas like Setapak. In Jakarta, measures to improve accessibility to open spaces were implemented in 2025, allowing five public parks to remain open around the clock. However, accessibility is limited and not all-inclusive, as all five parks are centred around Central and South Jakarta, home to some of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the city, such as Menteng and Pondok Indah.

Meanwhile, some communal places have been reshaped, with the definition of the physical third place evolving to include commercial ones, which blend commercial interests with social functions, transforming them into quasi-private venues (like cafés) and providing communities with more places to gather. With café culture and flexible work arrangements on the rise, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, many Southeast Asians now choose to frequent cafés as an alternative to working from home or at the office.

Physical third places allow people from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds to gather in informal, communal settings, where social hierarchies are less visible, allowing for more equal interactions among people who would otherwise not meet. To ensure that such interactions continue, they need to remain affordable. However, rising costs have caused many businesses to prioritise profit over open social exchange. This has occurred in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand due to factors like growing operating costs, intense competition and climate change’s impact on the production of coffee, raising its price. As cafés become more expensive, they become accessible to only a certain client-class, invariably shutting out swathes of the community. This reduces the impact of the physical third place, particularly as a social leveller.

Rising rents and operating costs also make it harder for independent enterprises that function as third places to survive. Financial pressures push them out in favour of high-profit businesses that can afford growing rentals. One example of this is the closure of the independent cinema, The Projector, in Singapore. In 2025, after operating for over a decade, its management announced that the company would be entering voluntary liquidation. In a 2024 interview, founder Ms Karen Tan had shared that The Projector had faced rising operating costs of up to 40 per cent compared to the previous two years (2022-23, or immediately post-pandemic). In the wake of the closure, Ms Tan again cited “rising costs…and the worst consumer market conditions in a decade” as being among the main reasons for the cinema’s shuttering. This trend is not unique to independent cinemas, as conventional cinema chains have experienced fewer patrons, as alternative and cheaper sources of entertainment such as online streaming have changed cinema-goers’ viewing habits.

Meanwhile, the rise of technology has allowed for the emergence of the “digital third place”. Online forums, gaming communities and social media provide highly accessible places for social interaction and belonging, especially during and after the pandemic. Scholars believe that these online spaces act as a potential extension to Oldenburg’s original idea regarding informal, in-person connection.

However, while digital third places do provide potential benefits such as facilitating bottom-up advocacy, they may not be able to replicate the social and psychological benefits of their physical counterparts. In Singapore, despite the younger generations’ penchant for online interaction, evidence suggests that they might be struggling to navigate and sustain meaningful face-to-face relationships. An Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) poll with 2,356 respondents carried out in 2023 found that individuals between the ages of 21 to 34 years old had higher loneliness scores compared to respondents aged 35 to 64 years old. Half of these younger respondents (who comprised 30 per cent of the respondents) shared that they felt anxious talking to people in person, preferring to speak online instead.

Moreover, these online platforms could lead to the creation of echo chambers. Social media and other algorithms, designed to deliver content tailored to people’s individual preferences, could inadvertently prevent them from interacting with diverse or alternative viewpoints. Any repeated exposure to only like-minded opinions online can end up reinforcing people’s biases and transforming digital places into havens for the incitement of hate, polarisation and radicalisation. Combined with the rise of artificial intelligence and disinformation, this makes it easier for negative ideologies to take root. For instance, Indonesian police have reported that at least 97 youths are being monitored after they were influenced by white supremacist ideology spread primarily through Telegram, a messaging application. This comes on the heels of a bombing in early November 2025 at a mosque inside a school complex in the Kelapa Gading area, whose perpetrator, a schoolboy, was apparently inspired by a Telegram group that glorified white supremacy. These Telegram groups reportedly give their participants a “sense of belonging”.

While physical third places are not quite extinct, they are endangered. Such places in an increasingly urbanising Southeast Asia provide balance for communities, as they allow for exposure to organic interactions comprising diverse ideas and viewpoints. This reduces the possibility of echo chambers and their ill effects, aiding the development of healthy mindsets and empathy. The erosion of such places may have lasting consequences on society and culture as their loss may lead us to become lonelier and more polarised. Even as the region pursues digitisation and digitalisation alongside growth, there needs to be more effort on the part of civil society, businesses and governments to preserve these places and enable them to organically thrive. Given our innate human desire for connection, physical third places are an essential, irreplaceable aspect of healthy city life.

Editor’s Note:
ASEANFocus+ articles are timely critical insight pieces published by the ASEAN Studies Centre.