Third places are not all alike. These facilities, or rather places for socialising, doing things together and sharing, have invaded the vocabulary of adult education and the social economy in France and Europe. The concept is not new, although much has been written and researched over the last decade. Ray Oldenburg, professor of urban sociology, published “The Great Good Place” in 1989. It talks about the social environments that come after home and work. These are complementary components of the community’s social life and relate to spaces where people can meet, get together and talk informally. Incidentally, the people at DOC don’t like to use the term “third place”.

Without going into the history of third places, I would like to mention Antoine Burret (who has written several articles and given a masterclass on EPALE). In 2017, he defined the third place as “a social configuration where the meeting between individual entities intentionally leads to the conception of shared perceptions”.  https://movilab.org/wiki/Etude_de_la_configuration_en_Tiers-Lieu_-_La_repolitisation_par_le_service

Finally, BE-TIERS-LIEUX, a Belgian organisation, points out that third places are “subjective, and that a third place recognised as such by a community may be perceived as trivial or useless by outsiders”. https://be-tiers-lieux.fr/

With this in mind, I met Célia Cansier and Cécile Grandmaire, employees who manage an interesting place that is run by residents and users on a daily basis, thereby rejecting a pyramid organisation. DOC strives to ensure that all those involved share responsibility. DOC is located in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

This work tiers-lieu DOC is licensed under All rights reserved

David Lopez: Célia, Cécile, what is DOC? 

Célia, Cécile: DOC is the result of a long and rich adventure involving many people over the past 9 years. In 2015, a group of artists set up illegally in the empty premises of a former secondary school on Rue du Docteur Potain, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. 

As the building belonged to the local authorities, a court case was launched, which the freshly-created DOC association lost. Faced with this verdict, the association would normally have had to leave the premises, but this was without counting on the many institutional supporters who saved DOC from being evicted. 

The collective was therefore able to stay and develop with two main objectives in mind: 

- enable emerging artists to work in a Paris studio in exchange for a small financial contribution 

- give as many people as possible access to culture by organising events and exhibitions for free or at no cost. 

Today, DOC is: 

- a site of over 3,000m2 with a garden and inner courtyard, consisting of individual and shared artists’ studios, exhibition spaces (a concert/projection room with a capacity of 100 people, an exhibition room of 150m2, a multi-purpose room of 70m2, communal areas: a shared kitchen with an adjacent terrace.

- around one hundred artists in permanent residence who create on a daily basis. Their creative practices range from the visual arts to audiovisual post-production, jewellery making, carpentry, the performing arts and musical creation. In all, there are 29 studios occupied by resident artists, either individually or sharing. As well as the permanent residents, there are also temporary residents, who add to the cultural vibrancy of the space. 

- 9 shared technical workshops: a wood workshop (joinery/woodwork), a sewing workshop, a screen-printing and micro-publishing workshop, a metal workshop (metalwork/ironwork), a photography laboratory, a ceramics workshop, a jewellery workshop, a post-production workshop and an offset press. These workshops are equipped with expensive machinery that would be very difficult for people to purchase individually. Sharing costs and space allows people to benefit from these machines. There are permanent residents in these workshops, and all other DOC residents have free access to them. These workshops are also open to external users, in exchange for a small fee.

 - a rich and varied weekly programme of cultural events (screenings, exhibitions, book fairs, concerts, theatre performances, etc.), open to the public at large and always free of charge. The programme is put together entirely by volunteers, and only exists thanks to the active involvement of DOC members. Every year, it organises around a hundred events and welcomes over 15,000 visitors. 

DOC operates thanks to the dedication of its members, but also thanks to its salaried team. To date, this team consists of two people in charge of administration, one person in charge of general management and cultural mediation with the local teams, and a volunteer in civic service whose tasks mainly revolve around communication. The venue’s finances rely on contributions from resident artists, subsidies received by the association and income from its programme of events.

David Lopez: You mentioned that you were looking for ways of achieving horizontal organisation and that this experience is a focus of practice and research for the people at DOC. Can you tell us about this?

Célia, Cécile: DOC is now a key figure in the cultural landscape of north-east Paris, but it is also, and above all, a self-managed collective project. This self-management, authorised and imposed by the particular nature of the space, has enabled the DOC collective to develop an alternative organisational mode to the traditional vertical ones. 

For several years, the association had a rotating Board of Directors, made up of five co-presidents elected for one year. The idea was to share power and responsibilities between many members of the association on a staggered basis. 

However, over the past year DOC has been moving towards an even more horizontal organisation, without a Board of Directors. This form of organisation is similar to what is known as “full collegiality”, which means that all active members of the association are supposed to have the same powers and responsibilities.

In practical terms, decisions are taken at the Annual General Meeting - there is one every month - and are implemented by steering committees. There are six steering committees, each dealing with a specific issue: the building committee, the management/administration committee, the events committee, the mediation committee, the networks committee and the communications committee. 

Each committee applies the decisions corresponding to its field of action. The committees are made up of the association’s residents, and all residents must belong to a committee. 

This organisational structure is not yet reflected in the Articles of Association, which still include a reference to the five co-presidents who make up the Board of Directors. However, a lengthy process of rewriting the Articles of Association has begun and should be completed in September 2024, with a view to officially formalising the association’s position of full collegiality. 

Horizontal decision-making within the association is a political choice that is very important to the association, but it is also a source of difficulties: lengthy and/or deadlocked decision-making, conflicts, imbalances between the various members of the association for a variety of reasons (differences in availability, differences in temperament, etc.). In short, self-management and horizontality are organisational methods that are constantly evolving and that require a great deal of patience, but we believe it’s worth the effort! 

DOC exists thanks to the dedication of its members, who are also artists in residence. 

David Lopez: You run a cultural project in the summer, in connection with the local area. Can you tell us about it? 

Célia, Cécile: Unfortunately, this year we were unable to set up this project because we did not obtain the necessary grant from the DRAC (Direction Régionale aux Affaires Culturelles), despite the general and financial support of the local council of the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

However, we have run the project four times already, and call it “HOT DOC”.  HOT DOC is a summer programme of cultural events at DOC, as part of the Cultural Summer programme. The Ministry for Culture’s Cultural Summer call for projects transforms the summer season into a period of encounters between artists, audiences and different regions, with events spread across mainland France and the French overseas territories. 

This nationwide initiative, launched in 2020, aims to support artistic and cultural events (concerts, performances, workshops, participatory projects, etc.) in all disciplines, and takes place in July and August. Cultural Summer is designed to encourage participation in cultural life, with free events open to all. In particular, it is aimed at people who don’t go on holiday, young people and disadvantaged groups. Particular attention is paid to disadvantaged areas, such as priority urban districts and rural areas. It also facilitates the professional integration of young graduates from higher education establishments in the field of culture and showcases the talents of more experienced artists in the field of cultural and artistic action.

Each year, the HOT DOC programme offers audiences a varied programme of artistic practices and an introduction to the arts and crafts, free of charge and accessible to all. The programme is aimed primarily at residents of the 19th arrondissement and neighbouring districts, as well as disadvantaged groups, children, families and young people. As well as reflecting the diversity of the association’s artistic fields, the multi-disciplinary HOT DOC project stems from a strong demand from audiences who don’t have the opportunity to go on holiday, at a time when there are fewer cultural events on offer. DOC artists prioritise workshops held in August.

For example, from 28 June to 13 September 2023, HOT DOC #3 gave nearly 500 participants the opportunity to discover the multidisciplinary nature of the artistic fields and professions covered by the DOC association. HOT DOC #3 offered 21 practical art workshops (jewellery-making, ceramics, drawing, theatre, screen-printing, film-making, etc.) and two exhibitions with mediation sessions. 41 artists, including four post-graduates, were involved in this new edition, working closely with DOC’s partners and local network (cultural and voluntary organisations, local authorities, social centres, etc.). 

The Ministry for Culture’s Cultural Summer programme enables DOC to focus more closely during the summer season on the association’s missions of opening up to the neighbourhood, artistic and cultural education and social cohesion, with a high-quality, specially-adapted programme designed in collaboration with professional artists and young artists. Multidisciplinary artistic practices are a strong feature at DOC, and this was highlighted throughout HOT DOC #3, enabling us to meet the needs of our target audiences: providing access to a high-quality artistic programme, offering a wide variety of events, adapting the programme to different audiences, offering events off the premises, free admission, opening up to new practices, conviviality, and more.

The Cultural Summer programme gives DOC’s emerging artists the opportunity to strengthen their skills in cultural action and to spend precious time with local residents and audiences. These workshops are facilitated by the remunerative potential of the programme, during the summer months when professional opportunities are less plentiful. HOT DOC #3 was held in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, at DOC, in the Place des Fêtes public space (on the square and in Rue Jean Quarré/ Rue des Enfants) and on the premises of two partner organisations in the priority district programme: l’Eternel Solidaire (at “Solidarité”) and the Salvation Army emergency accommodation centre (at “Algérie”, Rue de la Mouzaïa). 

With fewer cultural and artistic events on offer in Paris in August, DOC has been particularly active in this area. In response, the HOT DOC #3 administrative and artistic team focused on the following specific objectives:

- conduct efficient canvassing work with partners in the local network (local cultural organisations and associations, social centres, leisure centres, public establishments in the neighbourhood, etc.), in order to strengthen the dialogue with a wide range of audiences and identify their needs and expectations.

- develop communication and dissemination tools tailored to the target audiences. 

- enable beneficiaries and supporting organisations to contribute to setting up cultural activities and to take greater ownership of the content of the projects. 

- encourage the public to get involved in artistic and cultural projects, by offering an accessible and inclusive framework that meets their expectations (age groups, on-site at DOC or off-site, number of participants per project, materials, etc.).

- facilitate encounters between artists and audiences, through artistic practice and mediation, transmission of expertise, sharing of knowledge and conviviality. This enriches the exchange of ideas and strengthens social ties in the local area. 

- support the professional development of visiting artists, and the enhancement of their skills in cultural action and mediation.

- encourage the professional development of young artists, particularly residents of DOC who have graduated from art and craft schools.

- strengthen DOC’s “cultural action” activities and pursue its mission of providing access to culture and artistic practices.

David Lopez: Is there anything you would like to add?

Célia, Cécile: DOC works with Soleil Nord-Est, an informal network for mutual support and the sharing of good practice between different spaces in the north-east of Paris whose situations are similar to those of DOC. 

We are somewhere between a third place and an original autonomous space, in that we practise autonomous, collective and co-responsible governance. 

We are volunteers at all the events we organise and all our events are free of charge, making them as widely accessible as possible.

David Lopez, EPALE France expert.

[Translation : NSS EPALE France]