[Air-L] "social networks" preceded "network community"

[Jose Abdelnour-Nocera]

Thanks for the info, Barry. 
 
I certainly am aware of the older and broader sociological research and
debates on 'social networks'. I was only referring to the current,
mundane and fashionable use of the term, i.e.
groups/communities/collectives that are being supported by 'social
software'.

...and I totally agree with you.

Dr. José Abdelnour Nocera 
Senior Lecturer 
Institute for Information Technology
Thames Valley University
Wellington Street
Slough - England
SL1 1YG
Tel [work] +44(0)1753697887 / [home] +44(0)1908648376
Fax +44 (0)1753 697750
http://sirius.tvu.ac.uk/~abdejos/ 


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman
Sent: 15 September 2007 15:51
To: aoir list
Subject: [Air-L] "social networks" preceded "network community"

Jose wrote in the last digest:
"I think that this comparison is similar to that of VCs and 'Networked
Communities', a term that has been there long before 'social networks'."

Sorry, Jose, but I think you're wrong.

I.

The explicit use of the term social network goes back to the 1950s, with
J.A.  Barnes, the Cambridge anthropologist. Wikipedia has a handy
historical section on this, and for more detail, see

Linton Freeman, The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in
the
Sociology of Science. Vancouver: Empirical Press, 2004.

(I have a shorter article, as the first chapter of Wellman & Berkowitz,
_Social Structures_).

What's happening is that the social software mavens have been taking
over
"social network" as their own. There's been a lot of fuss on Wikipedia
differentiating between the "social network" and the "social network
service" article.

II.

I think I invented the term "networked comunities". Certainly I
started using it much later -- in the 1970s. Dredging my vitae, it was
probably used early on in:

Barry Wellman, "The Network Nature of Future Communities." Society for
the
Study of Social Problems, Aug., 1972. New York.(if you want to consider
conference papers)

and in print:

Paul Craven and Barry Wellman, "The Network City". Sociological Inquiry
43
(Winter, 1973): 57-88.

Barry Wellman, "The Form and Function of Future Communities." Pp.
301-313
in Futures for Central Canada, edited by Larry S. Bourne, et al.
Toronto:
Univ. of Toronto Press, 1974.

Barry Wellman, "Community Transformations: Present and Future." Pp.
213-26
in Participatory Democracy in Action, edited by Dan Chekki. Sahibabad,
India: Vikas, 1979.

Barry Wellman, "The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East
Yorkers." American Journal of Sociology 84 (March, 1979): 1201-31.

Barry Wellman and Barry Leighton, "Networks, Neighborhoods and
Communities," Urban Affairs Quarterly 14 (March, 1979):363-90.

Barry Wellman, Peter Carrington and Alan Hall "Networks as Personal
Communities." Pp. 130-84 in Social Structures: A Network Approach,
edited
by Barry Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988.

You could look it up as Casey used to say, as my vitae is online.
Alas, these papers were written before word processing, so I don't have
a
handy search mechanism available.

And I'd rather write new stuff that search old.

 Barry Wellman
 _______________________________________________________________________

  S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
  Centre for Urban & Community Studies           University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue          Room 418          Toronto Canada M5S 2G8
  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman            fax:+1-416-978-7162
  Updating history:     http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
         Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days
 _______________________________________________________________________


_______________________________________________
The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers: 
http://www.aoir.org/