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Online Communities: A Historically Based Examination of How Social Formations Online Fulfill Criteria for Community

Online Communities: A Historically Based Examination of How Social Formations Online Fulfill Criteria for Community
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Author(s): Jakob Linaa Jensen (University of Aarhus, Denmark)
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 14
Source title: Virtual Community Building and the Information Society: Current and Future Directions
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Christo El Morr (York University, Canada)and Pierre Maret (Université St. Etienne, France)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-869-9.ch006

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Abstract

I will take the point of departure in traditional sociological understandings and definitions of community. Next, I will give a brief summary of the history of online social phenomena, major debates and attempts to define community online. It is followed by a thematic discussion of ideas and practices of online social relationships. I will argue that the traditional focus on community as the dominant metaphor in understanding social formation online might be somehow mistaken as the Internet, although not necessarily unable to foster genuine social relations, is materially different from the realm in which traditional communities were shaped. It is claimed, in the end, that a framework encompassing logics of network might be appropriate in understanding online communities.

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