By implementing the Common Ground project, we wanted to strengthen the capacities of third-place actors by going beyond the national level, make their practices visible and legible at the European scale, and create bridges between citizen-led dynamics at different scales of action, notably by closely examining the practices and organization of our three structures: a national network, a local network, and a third place involved in the creation of a thematic network (eco-projects). The objective was both to enable place operators and networks to better understand and structure their models and, in the near future, to defend their models (economic, governance and cooperation) and their local impact, and to build a shared understanding of third places as social infrastructures useful for social, democratic and ecological transitions. The project thus aimed to produce tools, narratives and lasting alliances, in order to consolidate a European community of practice capable of positively influencing support and recognition frameworks for third places.
We applied for this project in order to carry out a first European collaboration on third places. First of all, we share the same observation: third places and community spaces now play a key role in social, democratic and ecological transitions in Europe, but their models, practices and frameworks for recognition remain very heterogeneous and fragile. Through this project, we sought to understand, through exchanges between three countries (France, Belgium and Greece), what the dynamics around third places are, to also understand organizational models (despite administrative and political differences), the common issues, the differences, and the obstacles and needs faced by project leaders. We applied to Erasmus+ to take the time to collectively reflect on what third places do in Europe, what they produce for territories, and how they can be better recognized and supported. Common Ground was both a space for reflection, for sharing our practices, and for creating a space to understand the European dynamics around third places, notably by initiating interaction with international networks already in place.