This document discusses identity, community, and communication in the context of the internet and networked society. It covers several key topics: - The rise of social network approaches and how they analyze relationships between nodes. This includes concepts like weak ties, bridging networks, and centrality. - Theories of online identity, including the idea of fluid and multiple identities online. It also discusses how social media profiles represent and standardize identity. - The values and mechanisms of online communities, and how different technologies like forums, blogs, and social networks enable different types of community. - The history of computer-mediated communication and how early theories analyzed its impact on relationships and behavior compared to face-to-face

1. Identity
Network
Community
Internet and Society 2018

2. So far
Technology and society - sociotechnical network
How was the Internet created, how did cultures of
creators count, innovation commons
Information society and Network Society theories

3. Ideas so far
Internet is the ‘New infrastructure of society’ – it does and
means many things for many people
Socio-technical infrastructure mediates interactions,
accumulation, it simultaneously enables and constrains.
Historic creation: Many trenched material and social
elements and interests (closure). Future change is
dependent on past decisions (Path dependency(
Is this infrastructure neutral ?

4. Intrastructure and Power
 Traditional elements of social infrastructure: e,g. Clubs, Rules (law),
ideas (ideologies), ’roads’ (technological), Resources (inc land, capital)
 Different groups control different parts, through ownership but often
through expertise.
 From1960s: Information and knowledge as key resource.
 Knowledge infrastructures: who knows what, who controls legitimacy
of knowledge, etc (on top of ability to exercise power in other ways. )
 Knowledge and Information allows manipulate other sorts of power?
 We will explore how the internet bring new players, new interests ad
players : Plurality or concentration of power?

5. Social shaping of the Internet
 Values of groups with skills, influence and resources
to shape the Internet (Castells)
Early creators had an overlapping set of values:
openness, freedom to act, individual choice and
empowerment, etc.
This included Networked Sociality
few controls on individuals by institutions

6. Outline and Ideas
 Identity
 Virtual
 Identity online
 Group and network identity
 Network Paradigm
 Social and Ego Network approaches
 Weak ties and Bridging
 Networked individualism
 Community
 Use, values and mechanisms of
community
 Technology of community
 Communication
 CMC – Computer Mediated Communication
 Risky shift
 Online communities and Community Online
 Virtual Worlds 2
 Technology of community
 Undermining of Community?
 Social Capital approaches
 Network Society

7. Theoretical
approaches:
Social Networks,
Social Capital,
Symbolic
interactionism

8. Identity online

9. Who are you?
 In pairs with someone you don’t know:
 Look at person next to you. Who are they? Write 1
sentence using clues from appearance, context, your
knowledge.
 Then look at one person’s FB page?
 What does it tell you about them?
 What evidence is presented for this?
 How many ‘identities do you have’?
“Having two identities for yourself is an
example of lack of integrity”

10. Jose Van Dijk
You have one Identity
Discuss, Questions
Goffman, Presentation of self
Given and given off
Identity as expression and performance
Dramaturgical metaphor
Consistency of presentation,
backstage/front stage.

11. Who are you online?
“No-one knows you are a dog”
No ethnicity, age, gender, looks, disability etc
Avatars - graphical representations
Fluid identify
Multiple identity can be made more obvious
A Place to Change ourselves
Sherry Turkle finds: People go to explore themselves and work
though problems.
‘Virtual’ self
Criticism: ignores reality of life – you still have to
Today – Instagram fetishisation of beauty

12. Identities: self, social, collective
Unified, or multiple-”self”
Self-identify and Social identity
Individual identity Work: According to Erik Erikson (1971) a sense
of identity is built upon how an individual reconciles his/her ‘talents’ or
interests with the roles assigned by society. There is a level of
consistency and unity that is ‘guaranteed’ by the presence of a physical
body. “
What about in the ‘Disembodied’ society?

13. Identity as Play –
expressive and emotive
Identity as Work –
instrumental and
functional
Identity as Belonging
Calculated Identify:
“data shadow”

14. Quantifed Self in a quantified community

16. Standardiation of Profiles
facilitates datafication and
commodification of users

17. From Individual to Groups to Networks
Organisational studies – rules, governance of this collective
identity
Belonging to a group – (ideas such affective identity, in
group, out group etc)
Instrumental participation – “gets me a job, status etc”
Subculture – e.g. ethnography of tech communities- hack
subculture. Steinmetz etc
Technology and organisations: rules ‘hard-coded’ into to
the tools (moderators, sign off, forking etc)

18. Rise of
“Network”
Paradigm

19. The Network Society Thesis
Manuel Castells
 The Rise of the Network Society (1996, 1997, 1998)
 Process and flows rather than structure and hierarchy
 Connectivity and communication
 Implications for individuals
 ‘Timeless time’
 ‘Space of flows’
 Networks key organising structure of society

21. Rise of Network Paradigm
 1990s and the Internet
 Network and process models replace structural
models in thinking about society
 E.g. Thompson “Markets, Hierarchies and
Networks: The Coordination of Social Life”
 ‘Information’ approach questioned (e.g. Webster).
 The organisation of the Information Society no
longer based on stable structures, but on networks
and flows.
 i.e. it is the connectivity not the content

22. (Social) Network Approaches
Social Network Approaches: Sees society and social relations emerging
from individual ties/bonds/connections between nodes.
 cf based on individual’s or collective’s characteristics
Emerged in many different social science fields
“Bottom-up” description and analysis based on relationships
General mathematic concept (Graph Theory from Euler )
Sociogram (or
Social graph)

23. Social Network approaches: Nodes and ties
 Nodes are individuals, organisations,
groups,
 ‘Ties’ or ‘edges’, link describe
relationship between nodes
 Analysts identify, label and measure
(family members, number of times
they meet, formally and informal
connections etc)
 We say these Ties represent Qualities:
e.g. trust, power over
 We measure their “Strength”
 Use of ties – asking for information,
money, support etc Ego network – ties of an
individual

24. Ego-Network as mapped by Facebook using Lost Circles
Family
Edinburgh Tango
Society
IPTS, European
Commission, Seville
University of
Edinburgh
VUB/iMinds
Brussels
ECA
Flamenco
Music
Make your own

25. From Nodes and Ties to Networks
Understanding how individual ties exist in, and
contribute to larger social structures
Alternative to assuming predetermined social rules
and relations
Class, family, firm etc
The conventional units of analysis may emerge from
the analysis, but we can can more clearly understand
how and why.

26. Network positions and qualities
Organisation network in hierarchical form
Dense network,
”small world”
Weak bridging link

28. Network approaches – Formal metrics
Individual focused
Centrality/marginality of
individuals - Power
Embeddedness of in a
network
Network focused
Qualities of networks:
dense,
sparse,
 cliques,
closure

29. Sociological analysis of network types
 Close, dense, closed networks
High trust, dependency, reputation
Strong Norms, sanctions
Used for strong moral, financial etc support
Isolating
 Open networks
Free Information exchange
Weak ties
 Small World Networks –Milgram experiment, 6 degrees

30. We Try to answer questions like:
How does the Network structure of society effect on
contagion of ideas/innovations/information?
How do network analysis help us understand why social
structures exist, social exclusion, poverty, control of power
How do networks evolve? How are they shaped and
controlled (internally, externally)?
Does not help much with norms and values
Maybe does not uncover individuals work in managing
overlapping networks

31. FLOWS
Information
Ideas
Money
Influence
Happiness
Health

32. Epidememiology: e.g. diffusion of happiness

33. Use of Ties:
Weak Ties Theory
Mark Granovetter
Social relations embedded in social network
Strength of Weak Ties theory
Strong ties in work class
Middle class also have Weak ties
Weak ties give a access to important economic
information (jobs) – (who you know)
Clear SNS connection.

34. Links between networks: Bridging
Old: centrality in a dense network source of
power
“Structural holes” badly connected social worlds
Roland Burt : Power comes from bridging
between poorly connected networks (e.g.)
Bridgers are Brokers of information – Power at
the limited points of passage
Value: Source of innovation

35. Key weakness in SN approaches
Really hard to collect and relationship
data
Until
The internet and social media!

36. The “Social Graph” as instrument of
Power
 Graph Theory - Mathematical analysis of Networks
 A way of describing the social world that engineers understand
and can act on.
 The Social Graph – Facebook’s Key Asset
Merge everyone’s ego network
PYMK
“It has access to people's real connections and that trumps
everything else” Zuck, 2007
 Modern social network businesses use mathematics to
leverage value of this knowledge.
 Huge power from know that has never previously exisited

37. What is
Community

39. Community ideas
E.g.
Trust
Reciprocity
Respect
Loyalty
Truthfulness
Civility
Responsibility
Access to:
 Information,
 money,
 security
 identity discourses
 etc

40. Communities, Organisations and Society
For example:
A place where “people create for
themselves shared meanings, symbols,
rituals, and cognitive schema which
allow them to create and maintain
meaningful interactions among
themselves and in relation to the
world beyond their small society”
(Argyris and Schon 1978)

41. Communities, Organisations and Society
Community of Place, Identity or
interest
Moral’ and practical benefits
Individual benefits;
Social (collective) benefits
Seldom stablity
Heterogenous and dynamic
population
Power struggles between individuals
and groups
Tensions - no chocolate box
village

42. Why do Communities govern themselves and
How?
Social worlds of
meanings and practices
 Common identity, practices,
memories and myths
 Formal and Informal Rules
 Enforcement and sanction
mechanisms
 Leadership and decision
making
 Processes for managing change
E.g.
 Support and maintenance of
community,
 Co-existence and plurality,
 Resolution or suppression of
conflict,
 Community development
 Resilience to internal and
external shocks.

43. Infrastructures of community
Symbolic interactionalists :
focuses on the activities that
take place between actors =
strong link to social network
approach
 Communities are sets of
overlapping Social Worlds
Connected by boundary
objects – or shared
infrastructures
E.g. Clarke and Leigh Star
Various groups have more
power over and through
infrastructures and institutions
than others
 lawyers, politicians, major
tax payers, bullies, engineers.

44. Communication

45. Briefly: Communication and Society 1
Communication technology allows people to form and
sustain social relationships, be they of co-operation or
control.
Changing the manner and ease by which individuals
and groups communicate alters the information flows
and thus the social relations in a community.
Those changes will depend on the existing relations

46. Communication and Society
Communicative acts (a) unfold within concrete
historical and socio-cultural contexts; (b) refer to
the interaction of people who are situated within
particular place in a complex configuration of
relationships (eg. groups); (c) involve the exchange
of information or messages the construction and
interpretation of which occur within a shared context
of symbolic meanings (eg. culture); and (d) create
or ‘introduce’ new contexts or dimensions of
discourse that help shape or alter the texture of
social reality.(Georgoudi and Rosnow, 1985),
 Georgoudi and Rosnow, 1985, The Emergence of Contextualism, J. of Communication ,
35, 7-88, quoted in Fulk et al. 1992, 9)

47. CMC: Computer mediated communication - history
Before CMC:
Telephone vs Face-to-
face (F2F)
[letter writing and
telegram]

48. First CMC: Email and BBS (Bulletin Board Systems)
One2one -> many2many
Email->email lists + BBS, Forums, Usenet Newsgroups
Academic and Business Question: Is CMC good for work?
Rise of Anonymous use of ’social’ BBS
Observations on practice:
FLAMING!!!!!!
Reduced inhibitions
Polarisation of arguments
Invention of para-linguistic elements, (smileys and
emoticons1982) :-))) [:-) ([(

49. How does CMC influence interpersonal relationships?
(Social) psychological theories
and experiments
 The social presence model (1970s)
F2F ideal – a deficit model of other
communications
Explanation: Social norms not
apparent in CMC
The cuelessness model
 Non-verbal cues
 CMC should be colder, more task
oriented, less compromise - not the
case
Reduced social cues
 Open, uninhibited polarised, - ‘risky
shift’.
 De-individuation
 Depersonalisation/Attention Focus Shift
 Increased Equality
 Many faults

50. Spears and Lea, 1992
“CMC may represent a more
intrinsically ‘social’ medium of
communication then apparently
‘richer’ context of face to face
interaction, and one that gives
fuller rein to fundamentally
social psychological factors”

51. CMC Analysis 2
SIDE model (Social Identity and DE-individuation) (Spears
and Lea)
Emphasis on “social identity” from informational cues etc
v. Individual identity
Outcome depends on which (social or individual) is more
important
Self-attention (at the terminal) - heightens relevant identity.
A. Personal identity - polarization, task
B. Group identity - consensus etc

52. Practical Questions
What sort of social organisation emerges with CMCs ?
How much are the behaviours seen in CMC a function of
particular technological configurations?

53. Technologies
Of Community

54. Online Communities
and
Communities Online

55. Name Some Social Technologies of Community
Email (lists)
Bulletin boards and forums (yahoo groups etc)
Discussion list open, moderated, closed.
Chat, IM, Virtual Presence, messaging apps
Profile pages: presentation of self (complete control)
Web log (Blog) and vblogs – author controlled interactivity
Social Networking Services (SNS) – friendship rules, ‘interest
and community group’ – “collective profile”
Wikis - collective writing
Meetup tools v. relationship maintanance tools

56. History: Online community Virtual Community;
 BBNs e.g. The Well 1982 - Rheingold
 Communities of interest and choice, not geography (old
academic networks)
 What do they do: Support, provide info, reinforce minority
ideas
 like cities, create critical mass for a subculture
 Ideal community,
 But they foundL
Often poor social identity
Anonymity and fluid personal identity - flaming etc
Active members and lurkers
Easy to leave, easy to expel. Easy to start new community

57. Virtual Worlds and Cyberspace
 Communities of Play: Affective, creative, social
 MUDs, MOO, MMORPG
 Role playing games, freeform world building
 Everquest, World of Warcraft,
 Commercial imperative
Attempts to produce non-commercial virtual worlds
 Designers set the ground rules, users create the community and culture
 Virtual Worlds or Reality - a parallel ‘space’ - a re-creation and reinvention of laws of
nature -> and norms of society
 Anonymity or alternative identity a key feature
 Cyberspace - “where the bank keeps your money” W. Gibson (Neuromancer )
 “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” – Barlow (1996)

58. Shaping Social Technologies: The Social is technical
 Early: Created by users to satisfy own community/communication needs
Technical and social governance mechanisms to create ‘community’
FAQ, netiquette, moderators, mentors, technical controls
Archives (memory) , tracking use, control of posting
 Successful configurations diffused rapidly e.g. Blog, friend finder, social
media,
 Today: We can pick and mix from technical and commercial world
 Community Tools provide not only communication mechanisms but are
also part of the governance mechanisms
Wide choice of tools to support particular types of sociality and
community. But not deterministic!
What mechanisms are used in the ‘communities’ you take part in?

59. Infrastructure of community
Communities have rules, rituals, cultures, institutions
They also have a socio-technical infrastructure
Wellman and Gulia 1997 “How does the Architecture of the Net
affect the nature of (virtual) community)
Consider the ‘community’ tools on the next page – how do they
constitute community, what mechanisms to they provide users
and moderators? What different affordances do they have, and
how flexibly can they be adapted to different community
governance

64. Wellman and Gulia paper
Virtual Communities as Communities 1997
Comments?
What were the questions in 1997?
Are we still asking these questions?
Another time, or still relevant
 Strong ties or weak?
 Anonymity?
 Real communities
What have I not covered?

65. Changing tools
Many ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ communities use many tools and services
simultaneously– Facebook, IRC, Whatsapp, BBs, blogs, Reddit,.
New communities are simultaneously both “real” and “virtual”
In open societies we are free to use multiple tools to present
ourselves differently, control our belonging to multiple overlapping
networks or communities
However certain tools become obligatory, and infrastructural
RISKS: Commercial platforms manipulate social interaction to generate
maximum growth and revenue – how does this impact of personal and
social organisation

66. TAKE AWAY: Technologies of Community
Governance
How do online services, tools and platforms attempt to structure
community?
How flexible are platforms – what affordances do they have?
And what are the models of identity in community they embody?
Network
Group
Sub-culture
What do we take for granted as ‘natural’?

67. Historical Macro-
Social Concerns

70. Community worries
US 1950s - suburbs, end of community etc
1980-90 electronic media undermine community - TV
Social Capital argument
Post-class analysis of society
How and why we take part in ‘society’?
How is society constituted?

71. Social Capital

72. Social Capital
Very fashionable in the 2000s
Used a great deal in early internet studies
 Coleman, Bourdieu, Putnam, Burt different approaches
 Value of social relations
 How we use social ties
 What are the emergent society features
 Social capital can be accumulated and transformed
 Bourdieu :Personal benefits from rich networks
 Those without connections lose out
 Coleman
 Social norms as social capital
 Provide support
 Dense interconnected networks

73. Social Capital 2: Putnam ‘Bowling alone’
 Putnam’s very politically influential study
 Reduced participation in civil society
 (Church, bowling clubs etc)
 Home-centred, electronic media
 Reduction in civic norms, reduced community trust etc
 Reduced political participation - > Week 10
 Individual relationships build to create is social capital of a community.
 Bonding capital – within homogenous groups (e.g. family)
 Bridging capital – between heterogenous groups (local club)
 Empirical thesis: Losing rich, thick community
 Skeptical about Internet
 Criticised for deterministic model, failure to account for socio-economic
conditions, income differentials, ethnic difference etc
 What might the Internet mean for Social Capital?
 Individual, community

74. Empirical: Internet in everyday life
 Early fears that Internet use and virtual/online communities isolate people
from ‘real communities’ - Kraut - Putnam
 Early studies: Users Withdraw, become less social etc (distopian)
Early adopters, short time users.
 Explosion in commercial Internet
Ecommerce, social media, Netflix, online dating etc
Never have to leave the home
2000s Mobile revolution – internet everywhere – overlapping digital and
physical spaces – personal bubble or connected in community?
2000s Explosion of local organisations e.g. Meetup groups
2010s reinforcement of isolation argument e.g. Turkle Alone Together. -
Is this a valid concern?

75. Policy and commercial: Why do people
‘involved’
In local community
In online communities
Motivations, rewards, cultures of taking part,
governance
How to get people more involved?
Participation -> eparticipation

76. Barry Wellman el al
2001 study – people using the internet are MORE engaged in local
community.
What we use community for?
How is community constituted today?
Internet use = greater participation in community, but what sort of community, and
what is the role of traditional institutions
KEY IDEA: Networked individualism
We have rich communities, but they are not necessarily
‘conventional’. Many new local and virtual communities.
However – we have to work harder as individuals
Social media: Tools to manage your personal network and
community

77. Networked Society
The privatisation of society
 Personal networks replace neighbourhood participation (Wellman)
Empowering on a local level as well as global level
Creates new possibilities for Social Movements
Power of communication and knowledge previously in hands of state,
now in hands of ‘All’?
Challenges our ability to live and think alone
Do we become more aware and more ‘social’?

78. Essay themes? Virtual Community Identity?
Virtual communities
Development of
community
awareness/identity
Investment in
maintenance of
community
Social action outside?
Rich community?
Online communities
Nationalism
Religion
Pedophiles
Terrorism?
Network society Support
networks
Algorithmically selected
Communities – people ‘like
you’

79. Virtual Society?
Beyond community? 7 million people Virtual societies
(courts, government?)
Virtual economies
Links to ‘real world’ - economy, personal life, murder.

80. Conclusions and Questions
 Integral part of social life
 Networked Individualism
 New communities?
 Social capital in online environments?
 Towards real virtual communities
 Pluralisim or fragmentation; virtual class.
 Virtual organisations - new work organisation
 Future: social movements, political movements
 Engaged and non-engaged, participation

81. Network methods
 Nodes and Connection
 Map network
 Metrics for relationships
 ‘strength of relations
 Power direction
 Use of relationship
 Flow of ideas and information
 Network qualities
 Density
 Centrality of nodes
 Marginality
 Integration -
 Bridging