Community without Propinquity Revisited: Communications Technology and the Transformation of the Urban Public Sphere Export

@article{citeulike:4096356, abstract = {Recent discussions of the Internet have touted "virtual community" and a capacity to enhance citizen power in democracies. The present essay (a) calls for a more rigorous understanding of community; (b) suggests that relationships forged with the aid of electronic technology may do more to foster "categorical identities" than they do dense, multiplex, and systematic networks of relationships; and (c) argues that an emphasis on community needs to be complemented by more direct attention to the social bases of discursive publics that engage people across lines of basic difference in collective identities. Previous protest movements have shown that communications media have an ambiguous mix of effects. They do facilitate popular mobilization, but they also make it easy for relatively ephemeral protest activity to outstrip organizational roots. They also encourage governments to avoid concentrating their power in specific spatial locations and thus make revolution in some ways more difficult.}, address = {Is professor of sociology and history and Chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University, 269 Mercer Street, NY, NY 10003-6687. He is the author of (Minnesota, 1998), (California, 1995), and (Blackwell, 1995).}, author = {Calhoun, Craig}, citeulike-article-id = {4096356}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1998.tb00474.x}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/119114073/ABSTRACT}, doi = {10.1111/j.1475-682X.1998.tb00474.x}, issn = {1475-682X}, journal = {Sociological Inquiry}, keywords = {cmc, communication, community, distance, urban}, number = {3}, pages = {373--397}, posted-at = {2009-02-25 00:57:09}, priority = {2}, title = {Community without Propinquity Revisited: Communications Technology and the Transformation of the Urban Public Sphere}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1998.tb00474.x}, volume = {68}, year = {1998} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:4096356 L3 - citeulike-article-id:4096356 N2 - Recent discussions of the Internet have touted "virtual community" and a capacity to enhance citizen power in democracies. The present essay (a) calls for a more rigorous understanding of community; (b) suggests that relationships forged with the aid of electronic technology may do more to foster "categorical identities" than they do dense, multiplex, and systematic networks of relationships; and (c) argues that an emphasis on community needs to be complemented by more direct attention to the social bases of discursive publics that engage people across lines of basic difference in collective identities. Previous protest movements have shown that communications media have an ambiguous mix of effects. They do facilitate popular mobilization, but they also make it easy for relatively ephemeral protest activity to outstrip organizational roots. They also encourage governments to avoid concentrating their power in specific spatial locations and thus make revolution in some ways more difficult. IS - 3 JF - Sociological Inquiry SN - 1475-682X AD - Is professor of sociology and history and Chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University, 269 Mercer Street, NY, NY 10003-6687. He is the author of (Minnesota, 1998), (California, 1995), and (Blackwell, 1995). EP - 397 TI - Community without Propinquity Revisited: Communications Technology and the Transformation of the Urban Public Sphere VL - 68 SP - 373 KW - cmc KW - communication KW - community KW - distance KW - urban AU - Calhoun, Craig PY - 1998/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1998.tb00474.x ER -