[Air-l] weak ties, great good place, & cyberspace

[Keith N Hampton]

Mito,

Have a look at some of the findings from the Netville study. One of the 
key findings was that Internet use facilitated the formation of weak 
neighborhood ties and that this had implications for local collective 
action. I also have an article, "Place-Based and IT Mediated 
'Community'" (Planning Theory & Practice 3(2)), that provides a social 
network argument for why ICTs are particularly likely to build weak 
neighborhood social ties. In the very near future I should also have a 
paper with results from my new "E-Neighbors" study of four Boston 
neighborhoods. Some very interesting findings related to Internet use, 
social networks, and neighborhoods. In particular a positive 
relationship between email use, but a negative relationship for Web 
surfing, and network diversity for both neighborhood and personal 
networks. You can find the Netville publications and the planning paper 
on my website www.mysocialnetwork.net

-Keith



-- 
Keith N. Hampton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Technology, Urban and Community Sociology
Associate Housemaster, Sidney-Pacific

Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 9-522
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

Email: knh at mit.edu
Phone: (617) 258-0461
Fax:   (617) 253-2654
Web:   http://www.mysocialnetwork.net

 
> Message: 3
> From: "mito akiyoshi" <sgz01570 at nifty.ne.jp>
> To: <air-l at aoir.org>
> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 17:51:44 -0600
> Organization: The University of Chicago
> Subject: [Air-l] weak ties, great good place, & cyberspace
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Does somebody know of publications that apply the notions of weak ties
> (Granovetter) and/or third place (Oldenburg) to understand ephemeral yet
> meaningful ties created in and around cyberspace? I began using these concepts
> to make sense of forms of sociality observed in communities (both "virtual"
> and offline) I am studying. I read a few papers that make reference to these
> concepts, But I do not know anything really good. Other than suggestions for
> readings, I appreciate your thoughts on this matter as well.
> 
> Whoami> I am a doctoral student of sociology. I am working on a dissertation
> about uses of the Internet in Japan, I am particularly interested in the ways
> in which everyday people adopt and adapt to the Internet to maintain their
> personal communities.
> 
> Thank you in advance,
> 
> Mito Akiyoshi
> Department of Sociology
> The University of Chicago
> 
>