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- Title
Social capital and community building through an electronic network.
- Authors
Hopkins, Liza; Thomas, Julian; Meredyth, Denise; Ewing, Scott
- Abstract
This paper describes a social policy experiment that explores current and potential links between trends in Australian public policy. The central example is provided by the implementation of a wired community set up in a low-income public housing estate by an entrepreneurial not-for-profit internet service provider, InfoXchange. 'Reach for the Clouds', the wired community being established at Atherton Gardens in Fitzroy, Melbourne, is attractive to policy-makers and funding bodies, combining community-building, public-private partnerships, self-help and place-based management. However, although the project is promoted as an exercise in community-building through technology, many of the key assumptions are untested. It seems self-evident that low-income people who are socially and economically excluded would benefit from greater 'connectedness' with one another. However, it is not clear that such exchanges, online or off-line, will build 'community'. The paper attempts to establish some distinctions between online communities of interest and place based communities, untangling the relationship between social connectedness and models of social capital.
- Subjects
POLITICAL planning; SOCIAL policy; PUBLIC housing; INTERNET service providers; SOCIAL capital; PLANNED communities; TELECOMMUNICATION systems; INTERNET industry; VIRTUAL communities
- Publication
Australian Journal of Social Issues (Australian Council of Social Service), 2004, Vol 39, Issue 4, p369
- ISSN
0157-6321
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/j.1839-4655.2004.tb01188.x