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Libraries, Laundromats, Flea Markets

This piece was originally published in the May 2025 issue of Pandora Curated.



“If I had clean clothes, I think people would treat me like a human being.” 


This was the response of an unhoused California man that led to the establishment of Laundry Love, a multi-faith outreach program that offers free washing of clothes for unhoused and financially vulnerable people in California.


Shops in a town/city: a bookshop with bikes, a coin laundry with people, and a mini market. Orange-brown hues, cozy, busy atmosphere.
Illustration by Swetha Prabakaran

Laundry Love and other community organisations like it can be assessed to explore the role of community building in creating sustainable cities and the historical role of libraries, laundromats, and flea markets in fostering the overall wellness of people in a community and driving socio-political change.


According to Stuart M. Butler, a scholar of Economic Studies in residence at the Brookings Institution, third spaces or third places, a term coined by Ray Oldenburg, refer to the places people spend time between home (the first space) and work or school (the second space). 


Concurrently, the University of Chicago’s English Language Institute states that these places allow individuals to “affirm [their] identities” and to connect with people they can feel safe with. These include bars, gyms, churches, hair salons, libraries, cafes, and parks. Third spaces are public places where people spend and enjoy their free time. 


Third spaces can very organically turn into civic spaces, as civic spaces are the environments that “enable civil society to play a role in the political, economic, and social well-being of our societies, particularly by contributing to policy-making that affects their lives”, according to the OHCHR. The nature of third spaces encourages free-flowing discussion, including that of politics, making them de facto civic spaces. 


By definition, civic spaces are characterised by the ability to access information, engage in dialogue, and come together to share diverse perspectives and thoughts. These conditions thus create the basis for democratic participation, allowing individuals to meaningfully engage with their communities and institutions. Civic spaces encompass and protect an individual’s rights to freedom of association, expression, and peaceful assembly. Essentially, civic spaces must exist to facilitate the proper functioning of democracy and democratic societies.


The physicality of third spaces is particularly important. Access to virtual platforms remains unavailable to many, and physical spaces offer vital points of connection, where people can form friendships, organise their local communities, and offer mutual aid without lack of digital access and fear of online surveillance as barriers. In an age of increasing polarisation and control, these spaces offer a necessary sanctuary for genuine civic life.


Mutual aid is especially necessary in low-income communities, where third spaces and civic spaces can act as an environment for civilians to show up for each other in places where the system has failed to do so, such as in the case of Laundry Love. Low-income families and communities must be included in policy-engagement activities, and this is far easier to accomplish when meetings and rallies are in person.


Naturally, the functioning of third spaces and civic spaces in higher- and lower-income areas differs. Third spaces that don’t require people to spend money are more important in lower-income countries and communities because people are not in a position to consistently spend money on activities that are classified (out of necessity) as non-essentials. 


Three kinds of spaces that function well and where the expectation to spend money (or extra money just to access the space) is little to none are libraries, laundromats, and flea markets. The reduced expectation or necessity to spend money is not only good for the inclusion of people from low-income families and communities, but also for students, who typically do not own much or have money but are known to be at the forefront of societal change.


Libraries are one of the institutions central to civic engagement and, therefore, fostering democracy. These are state-owned institutions in charge of the dissemination of information at little to no cost. Libraries promote media, as well as traditional literacy, recreational and political dialogue, and access to information and knowledge.


According to the OHCHR, all of these constitute a civic space. While speaking loudly in libraries is not allowed for the sake of other people in the shared space, it can still be used creatively to facilitate the flow of information and ideas among people who are interested, and can still make a conducive place for meetings.


Additionally, libraries act as drivers of sustainability in the same way that flea markets and laundromats do: by placing less pressure on the consumer to buy a new product. In the case of libraries, being able to borrow a book at no cost means that the patron does not have to buy a new book. The same applies to laundromats with washers and dryers, and flea markets with the array of things sold there. This decreased demand for new products reduces stress on natural resources and gives already existing products a longer lifespan.


The connection of laundromats and flea markets to civic spaces is less obvious, and to unpack their relevance to building civic spaces, their community-building nature and therefore community-building nature of gossip must first be explored.


In their article “Gossip Drives Vicarious Learning and Facilitates Social Connection,” Eshin Jolly and Luke Chang posit that gossip serves as a valid method of spreading information by providing the opportunity of observation to people who weren’t there to do so first-hand. This is what they refer to as vicarious learning, and according to the OHCR, information sharing is a defining characteristic of civic spaces. This assertion is supported by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who, as reported by Jenna Mackenroth, purports that gossip is a form of cultural learning and “facilitates the spread of information within a large social network.” 


When Deborah London Wright explores the etymology of the word ‘gossip,’ she points out that it comes from the two words ‘god sib,’ “referring to a godparent or sibling who was concerned with the welfare of a child.” It is this kind of gossip—the kind that inquires into the well-being of others—that takes place at laundromats and flea markets, which is why historically, laundromats served as places of communion, knowledge building, and inquiry into the welfare and needs of community members. Similarly, civic spaces ultimately exist to ensure that community members are afforded the opportunity to take part in their community’s political life, ensuring each other’s safety and welfare.


In his article, “Laundry City,” Manuel Sànchez-Villanueva Beuter poses the question: “But if nowadays […] the ordinances make us replace laundry rooms with dryers, where will we do our laundry? What spaces does the city offer us today to gossip and generate a sense of community? Where will we get to know our neighbors well enough that one day they will look after our children or help us with the shopping?” To bear each other’s burdens and joys, community members need to form a community and get to know each other first through shared spaces like laundry rooms and flea markets.


To illustrate the importance of common places in civic engagement, in their article for the Journal of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture, Shinichi Asakura and Masakazu Nojima posit that flea markets possess qualities that can “revitalise city precincts,” which include being centers for communication and recreation, and political discourse.


This position is supported by Professor of Sociology, Sophie Watson, in her research on socio-cultural change. It highlights the importance of markets as “sites of trade, social innovation, urban regeneration, healthy eating, environmental sustainability and social interaction.”


According to Jolly and Chang, “gossip also helps promote cooperation in groups without a need for formal sanctioning mechanisms.” This is especially true in places such as laundromats and flea markets, where information is disseminated informally and mutual aid is practiced without formal provisions from NGO or government grants. This enables them to act as civic spaces even when that is not their primary purpose. 


This begs the question: what do libraries, laundromats, and flea markets have in common? They are all third spaces that share a thin line with civic spaces. They link the practices of community building and sharing with sustainable development. They teach us that having spaces in common and using those spaces is a key part of creating a healthy socio-political life in a community.


What is it about sharing and reusing books, appliances and clothes that enriches the political life of a community? What is the correlation between giving used goods a longer life and giving an underrepresented community a longer life? 


These spaces also teach us that having been used does not automatically mean being useless. Appliances, books, clothes, containers, and other things are meant to be used until they can no longer fulfill their purpose, at which point they can be repurposed. The ability to stretch the lifespan of a thing is a testament to the adaptability and the innovation of communities that manage to do so.


Sharing, lending, borrowing, and thrifting are political acts in and of themselves. They are divestment from and resistance against an economy built and reliant on the exploitation of natural resources and human labour. As we share, we unburden the earth’s resources and the most vulnerable of us and give ourselves a longer life.




Edited by the Curated Editorial Team


Tatenda Dlali (she/her) is a student of Environmental Science and Associate Editor (Climate) at Political Pandora, where she co-leads the Climate Department. Her research focuses on conservation ecology, the intersections of gender, migration, and climate change, and decolonizing the climate justice movement.



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Keywords: Third Spaces, Community Building, Civic Spaces, Democratic Engagement, Social Change, Mutual Aid Networks, Low-Income Communities, Laundry Love, Urban Communities, Libraries, Free Public Resources, Flea Markets, Secondhand Economy, Social Equity, Gossip.

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