Social Structures of Online Religious Communities

View Sample PDF

Author(s): Jerald Hughes (University of Texas – Pan American, USA)and Scott Robinson (Global Trading Group, USA)
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 15
Source title: Handbook of Research on Social Software and Developing Community Ontologies
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Stylianos Hatzipanagos (King’s College London, UK)and Steven Warburton (King’s College London, UK)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-208-4.ch014

Keywords: Information Science Reference / Media & Communications / Social Computing / Virtual Communities & Virtual Reality

Purchase

View on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

This chapter examines interaction-oriented virtual religious communities online in the light of sociological theory of religious communities. The authors find that the particular importance of identity, authenticity and authority in religious communities populating online discussion forums may give rise to special problems online, which are demonstrated here to be direct outcomes of the necessary reliance on information technology to carry out functions of online religious social groups which are intended to correspond to offline religious categories. The authors draw upon both sociological theory of religious communities and information systems theory of computer-mediated communications to identify salient points of similarity and difference between online and offline religious social structures, and conclude that online religious forum communities as presently constituted are unlikely to be able to directly replicate the traditional social structures of the offline religious institutions from which they originated, due to the particular powers and constraints on action embodied in social software.

The IRMA Community

Research IRM

Social Structures of Online Religious Communities

Purchase

Abstract

Related Content

IRMA Sponsors