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While tracing the historical emergence of the café as a social institution and noting its multiple faces and functions in the modernity of the occident, three themes run like threads of varying texture through the chapters: the social connectivity and inclusion of cafés, café as surrogate office, and café as site of exchange for news and views.

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Introduction: The Sociology of the Café 1. The 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 Sk›lsvold, and Ingeborg Gr›nning 6. Communal Awareness in the Urban Café; 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

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"This is a remarkable work of cultural urban sociology with ramifications for the understanding of network sociability and public space in history and in contemporary society. A great scholarly contribution that is also a pleasure to read." - Manuel Castells, Professor Emeritus, City Planning, University of California, Berkeley, USA

"Graham Scambler and Aksel Tjora have edited a collection of international contributions examining the importance of cafés as ´third places,´ or staging areas for social networks and social solidarity. Such ´third places´ are so necessary that people will continue to create more of them, particularly in cities and in democratic societies - both of which are on the rise worldwide for the foreseeable future - and Café Society examines these places with new sociological depth. This volume is bound to be the last word on a timely subject for years to come." - William (Beau) Weston, Van Winkle Professor of Sociology, Centre College, USA

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Ray Oldenburg, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of West Florida in Pensacola Bodil Stenseth, External representative on the board of the Institute of Philosophy, history of ideas, art history and classical languages, University of Oslo. Paul Manning, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Canada Tomas Moe Skj›lsvold, Researcher, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Ida Marie Henriksen, Research Assistant, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Ingeborg Gr›nning, PhD Candidate, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Eric Laurier, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Geography & the Lived Environment, University of Edinburgh. Keith Hampton, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Pennsylvania Neeti Gupta, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania Frans Oddner, Professor, Department of Sociology University of Kristianstad, Sweden Erling Dokk Holm, researcher at the School of Marketing and at the Oslo School of Architecture at the Institute of Urbanism and landscape, Oslo School of Management, Norway Alex Broom, Senior Lecturer in Health Sociology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney Peter Walters, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Queensland, Australia

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