Tea in the Pot: Building ‘social capital’
or a ‘great good place’ in Govan?
Maria Feeney
Lecturer in Sociology
School of Media, Culture and Society
University of the West of Scotland
maria.feeney@uws.ac.uk
Introduction
The concept of ‘social capital’
Using the language of social capital
Empowering communities?
Third place
Tea in the Pot as a ‘third place’ – a ‘great good place’
Final words
The concept of social capital
The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)
defines ‘social capital’ as networks together with shared norms, values and
understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups (OECD 2001, p41)
Term is at best vague and has multiple definitions
Popularised by R Putnam (1996) – decentralised state coupled with a strong
‘civil society’ would lead to relations of reciprocity across society thus enabling
the rational actions of individuals to benefit society as a whole
Tied to a wider real world development – in which the state was further
withdrawing from supporting people in communities damaged by
deindustrialisation, unemployment and poverty
Language of social capital
The potential appeal of concept of ‘social capital’ to policy makers is clear – if
people can be encouraged to build their social networks, this would aid the
development of ‘healthy’ communities who would then place less demands on
social services
In recent decades, there has been similar language used around policies for
deprived communities– for example, ‘social inclusion’ ‘partnership’, ‘community
engagement’ vibrant communities’, ‘community empowerment’ and the like
Although this language sound good, there has in fact been a sharpening of
poverty and inequality, increased social exclusion and disempowerment
Language and empowerment
Language of social capital ‘responsibilises’ communities for problems not of their
own making
Leads to the kind of thinking where local communities are viewed as being in
deficit, of somehow failing to help themselves and are often ‘abandoned’ to deal
with their own problems
Perhaps more positively, in the recently passed Community Empowerment
(Scotland) Bill, much is said about what should be done to empower communities
The Local Government and Regeneration Committee’s Stage One Report on the
Bill stresses repeatedly the need for the terms which we invoke in talking about
the problems of local communities to be intelligible and practically meaningful to
the people in those communities (Feeney, M. & Collins, C. 2015)
Third place
With this in mind, we argue that policy makers should be looking for a more
viable language that makes sense to, and resonates with, the lived
experiences of the communities we are talking about and with
To this end, the concept of ‘third place’ seems to us to begin to address the
above issues
Oldenburg (1989, 1999) identifies ‘third places’ as accessible spaces away
from home and work (the first and second places)
They are described as place which provide a sense of belonging and
community and as key ‘anchors’ to the community for those who frequent
them
Tea in the Pot
Research carried out with an Oxfam community partner group, Tea in the Pot
(TITP) a Women’s Drop-In and Support Service based in Govan and founded in
2005
Drawing on the findings from focus groups, individual interviews and witness
testimonies, we found that TITP can be viewed as an attempted to ‘improvise’ a
‘great good place’ in the heart of Govan
Utilising Oldenburg’s work and the work of those who have employed the
concept of third place, we found that the women at TITP understood and very
quickly embraced Oldenburg’s terms
Tea in the Pot as third place
• Supporting positive social interaction
• Engendering a sense of belonging
• Reducing loneliness and isolation
• Being part of a wider community
• Making a difference
(Feeney, M. & Collins, C. 2015)
1.
neutral
2.
non-hierarchical
3.
interactive
4.
accessible and
accommodating
5.
welcoming
6.
ordinary
7.
sociable
8.
comfortable
(Oldenburg 1999)
Tea in the Pot as third place
The language of third place connected in a meaningful way with the history of
their own lives and their experience of how their community has changed
They see as Oldenburg did in the US, that the processes of economic, social,
political and urban change has undermined the existence of third places which
are so important to the ‘vibrant communities’ which over the years policy makers
have been keen to aspire to
The women are very much aware of their own needs and those of the wider
community and how these can be met, and have successfully been doing this for
the last ten years with very limited resources
Final Words
In closing, it seems appropriate to leave the last words to the women of TITP as
a way of demonstrating that they are only too well aware of what women in
communities like Govan need to help them feel empowered, important, valuable
“The health services will employ psychiatrists, psychologists and all the rest of it, your
talking therapy. None of it is the same as coming (to TITP) and talking to people you trust,
people you can relax with and really talk to”
“You come to (TITP) for yourself, but after a while you, you’re involved with people and you
have that sense that…it’s not all about you. You want to be helping other people”
“It’s not just an exercise (coming to TITP), it not just like ‘ah well she didn’t quite like it’, ehm
you’re kind of hunted, they track you down to make sure you are still breathing. It’s good, it
sounds horrible, but it is a really, it’s a good feeling, it’s a kind of security blanket…it makes
you feel kind of important”
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