The Significance of Virtual Communities

By MASSAWE ARKADI

This article explores a number of debates which have developed around the significance of 'virtual communities'. It poses new ways of thinking about
community with more traditional forms and asks 'what is different?' and 'what
is the same?' about community built on the web. This piece also examines some
of the claims made as to the nature of virtual communities and asks whether
they are the democratic, alternative, liberating, safe and effective
environments that many claim them to be?

In his recent work The Internet Galaxy , Manuel Castells explores a number of debates which have developed around the significance of 'virtual communities' (2001:116-136). The work of writers such as Barry Wellman (1979) and Claude Fischer (1982), he maintains, has long demonstrated that '...people do not build their meaning in local societies....because they select their relationships on the basis of their affinities' (2001:126). Castells has gone so far as to claim that '...the major transformation of sociability in complex societies took place with the substitution of networks for spatial communities as major forms of sociability' (2001:127).

His position holds that although 'place-based sociability' and 'territorially defined community...has not disappeared in the world at large … it certainly plays a minor role in structuring social relationships for the majority of the population in developed societies' (2001:126).

For Castells and Wellman, exactly where we reside is only marginally important in the construction of our friendships and social groups and we choose instead to spend more time with people whom we have identified as sharing common interests rather than merely common spaces. The transformation of western societies from predominantly rural to an urban way of life began this process and the introduction of communications tools such as efficient postal systems and improved transport mechanisms have meant that it has become possible to maintain important interpersonal relationships over distance.

The development of telephony over the past century and the introduction of the internet as a communication tool have been heralded as technological breakthroughs which further cement this process. These communication devices enable instant access to people all over the world, and have been perceived as breaking down any remaining barriers of space and time which have hitherto hindered communication across the globe.

Castells argues that the internet is the most appropriate medium of communication in an emerging network society (1998) and that it will play an increasingly important role, not only in the way that people choose to communicate with each other but also in the way we form social relationships.

The internet is indeed a powerful tool which not only enables communication between individuals, but which allows whole groups of people to interact in virtual or 'cyber' space. The space which it provides is both private and communal. It can sustain intimate, personal encounters as well as open, accessible forums. It is a space where individuals can learn about each other and community can flourish. Indeed if Castells' thesis is correct and internet communication will come to dominate social relations in the twenty-first century, then sociologists must rethink and rework existing theories of community in order to acknowledge this fundamental shift in the way we construct our most meaningful interpersonal relationships.