What roles does a "third place" play in the everyday lives of people living with cancer?
This project aimed to draw attention to third places--informal gathering places apart from home (the first place) and work (the second place)--as local contexts of health and well-being. Drawing on the humanistic concept of place, the therapeutic merits of a setting were understood as something associated not only with the setting's physical characteristics but also with the meanings recipients or those in search of ‘‘therapy’ associated with the setting. To explore this idea, the project focused on Gilda's Club of Toronto, a venue that serves as a meeting place where people living with cancer, as well as their families and friends, can join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to their treatment of choice. In examining Gilda's Club, the objectives of the project were to:
- Understand the lived experiences of people dealing with cancer and the role of Gilda's Club in their lives
- Explore the role of place in facilitating social capital development
- Understand how social capital impacts upon individual health and well-being, both positively and negatively, and
- Work with Gilda's Club of Toronto to build greater capacity for understanding how place and social capital impact upon the health and well-being of people dealing with cancer.
Additional reading
Glover, T. D., Parry, D. C., & Mulcahy, C. M. (2013). At once liberating and exclusionary? A Lefebvrean analysis of Gilda’s Club of Toronto. Leisure Studies, 32(5)467-486.
Parry, D. C., & Glover, T. D. (2011). Living with cancer? Come as you are. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(5), 395-403.
Parry, D. C., & Glover, T. D. (2010). Dignity, hope, and transcendence: Gilda’s Club as complementary care for cancer survivors. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(3), 347-364.
Mulcahy, C. M., Parry, D. C. & Glover, T. D. (2010). Troubling the “Patient Patient”: The trauma of waiting and the power of resistance for people living with cancer. Qualitative Health Research, 20(8), 1062-1075.
Mulcahy, C. M., Parry, D. C. & Glover, T. D. (2009). Between death and diagnosis: A performance text about cancer, shadows, and the ghosts we cannot escape. International Review of Qualitative Research, 2(1), 29-42.
Glover, T. D., & Parry, D. C. (2009). A third place in the everyday lives of people living with cancer: Functions of Gilda’s Club of Greater Toronto. Health and Place, 15, 97-106.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding this project and to the staff and members of Gilda's Club of Toronto who participated in this project. Without their support this project would not have happened.
