Koncept skupnosti v informatični družbi

Abstract

The article argues that the logic of the functioning of the current (informational) society establishes a different concept of community, not necessarily defined by closely integrated groups of individuals from territorially proximate areas, but primarily including solidarity networks of (territorially distant) individuals, which are enabled by and based on new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Such spatial restructuring of the organisation of society is an extension of the concept of community from physical to cyberspace. This argument is based on the premise that the conception of community is closely related to the conception of social action space. For this reason, the article is divided into two parts. The first part presents in detail the new (cyber) space of social dynamics generated by new ICTs. This also establishes the theoretical framework for the second, key, part of the article, in which the arguments supporting the concept of virtual communities are presented. The reasoning is based on major sociological concepts of community established to date whose common characteristic is that they are not limited merely to neighbourhoods and villages or a determinate territory. Namely, such a definition of society represents an important starting point for reflection on the conceptualisation of community in the information society, where individuals are able, through new ICTs, to create, build up and maintain interpersonal relationships independent of temporal-territorial obstacles. Although some consensus about the existence of virtual communities can be found among researchers on the intuitive level, there is as yet no generally accepted and uniform definition of such communities. This is one reason why scientific argumentation of this concept presents certain types of problems or doubts, which are also treated in detail in the present article. The main conclusion of the article is that modern individuals possess egocentric social networks or communities consisting of relatively weak bonds, which are maintained in the physical as well as cyberspace. On the basis of this it can be deduced that the term community in today's society can refer to social aggregations located in a determinate territory both in the physical as well as cyberspace

Keywords

virtualna skupnost;teritorialna skupnost;kibernetski prostor;IKT;informacijsko-komunikacijska tehnologija;tehnološke novosti;

Data

Language:	Slovenian
Year of publishing:	2007
Typology:	1.02 - Review Article
Organization:	UP - University of Primorska
Publisher:	Centro di ricerche scientifiche della Repubblica di Slovenia
UDC:	316.33:004.738
COBISS:	1395667
ISSN:	1408-5348
Views:	2876
Downloads:	26
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	English
Secondary keywords:	virtual community;territorial community;cyberspace;ICT;information and communication technologies;new technologies;
URN:	URN:NBN:SI
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	str. 415-428
Volume:	ǂLetn. ǂ17
Issue:	ǂšt. ǂ2
Chronology:	2007
ID:	1739227