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Chapter Summary
Chapter 9 examines how the notion of community has changed as a result of the introduction of new technologies in society. The chapter starts with a brief overview of Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft as two of the most central concepts in the study of the structure of society. What follows is a critical examination of the debate about how industrialization, urbanization, and globalization have affected community. The community-lost, community-saved, and community-liberated perspectives are reviewed to contrast competing theories on the nature of these changes. The chapter also considers the recent concerns expressed about the impact of the Internet on the patterning of social relationships and presents various competing perspectives. Chapter 9 concludes with a discussion of how information and communication technologies have affected the public sphere. As part of this discussion, we take an in-depth look at the events that unfolded in Egypt in February of 2011 and analyze the role of social media in the protests.
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you should learn to do the following:
- to investigate “the community question” and its link to industrialization;
- to examine Tönnies’ and Durkheim’s concepts of community and to show how these apply
- to discuss and critically examine the concept of social capital and how digital media have influenced the social capital available in communities;
- to introduce the theory of the Triple Revolution and to show how it intersects with new structural forms such as networked individualism; and
- to re-examine the concept of the public sphere in light of widespread use of digital media for the support of protests and social movements.