- Summary
- Contents
- Subject index
Within the developed world, much of society experiences political, economic, and cultural life through a set of communication technologies barely older than many citizens. Society Online: The Internet in Context examines how new media technologies have not simply diffused across society, but how they have rapidly and deeply become embedded in our organizations and institutions. Society Online is not exclusively devoted to a particular technology, or specifically the Internet, but to a range of technologies and technological possibilities labeled "new media." Rather than trying to cover every possible topic relating to new communication technologies, this unique text is organized by how these new technologies mediate the community, political, economic, personal, and global spheres of our social lives. Editors Philip N. Howard and Steve Jones explore ...
Chapter 2: The Bridging and Bonding Role of Online Communities
The Bridging and Bonding Role of Online Communities
Along tradition in sociological theory among writers such as Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Tonnïes, and Simmel has been concerned about the loss of community and the weakening of the face-to-face relations of Gemeinschaft, a theme revived recently in the work of Putnam (2000). The role of new communication technologies, especially the internet, has often been regarded as important for this phenomenon either by exacerbating social isolation or by reviving communities ties virtually Contemporary debates about social capital have noted that many local networks and associations strengthen social cohesion, but another darker downside exists in community life (Edwards & Foley, 1998; Portess & Landholt, 1996). To understand this phenomenon, Putnam (2000, ...
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