Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26

A Review of AKSEL TJORA, GRAHAM SCAMBLER (eds.), CAFÉ SOCIETY. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 224 pp.

Alexandra Kviat

University of Warwick, Department of Sociology
Ramphal Building, CV47AL, Coventry, UK
a.kviat()warwick.ac.uk

Abstract: The reviewed book is one of the first edited volumes on the social and cultural role of the café. Drawing on such empirical trends as a rapidly increasing number of commercially viable cafés and their growing significance in contemporary urban landscapes, the editors coin the notion of a “café society.” This concept, along with the Oldenburg’s term “third place”, is used as a core theoretical framework to unite fourteen researchers from different disciplines (sociology, urban studies, history, anthropology, geography, and communication studies) and countries (Norway, the UK, the USA, and Australia). The essays composing this book explore café as a cultural form and a social institution, touching upon such “Big Questions” as public sphere, civil society, and democracy; social interaction, sociability, and community; class, gender, and age; glocalisation, gentrification, and mediatisation.

Keywords: café culture, café studies, third place, public sphere, social interaction, sociability, community, urban public space.

To cite: Kviat A., 'A Review of Aksel Tjora, Graham Scambler (eds.), Café Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 224 pp.', Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26, pp. 245–263.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/026/kviat.pdf