Socio-material construction of public saunas as third places

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore Finnish public saunas as third places. Taking the theoretical lens of assemblage thinking, the study reveals how the socio-material capacities of public sauna assemblages enable and/or constrain public saunas to facilitate their unique social atmosphere. Design/methodology/approach This study develops insights from an interpretative data set consisting of interviews (n = 39) with sauna bathers in hotel sauna departments, three focus group discussions arranged in a commercial sauna environment, and articles from the Sauna Magazine published between 2018 and 2022. Findings The findings demonstrate how the elements of people, spaces and materials contribute to the production of public saunas as holy places, democratic places and experiential places. The study also addresses how socio-material capacities enable public saunas to facilitate their social atmosphere by connecting each assemblage to the four social dimensions – social leveller, regularity, diversity and enjoyment (Yuen and Johnson, 2017) – of third places. Originality/value This study extends previous third-place studies by looking beyond human agency in the construction of third places. That is, the study illuminates how the heterogeneity of material elements in collaboration with a variety of people creates diverse third-place assemblages and reveals how the assemblages interact with the social dimensions of public saunas. In particular, the study shows how the finetuned layers of social interaction, including pursuing for silence, facilitate the social atmosphere of public saunas.