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Title

Social capital and community building through an electronic network

Author(s)

Hopkins, Liza;  Ewing, Scott;  Thomas, Julian;  Meredyth, Denise

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.

Publication Type

Journal article

Research Centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Institute for Social Research

Source

Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 39, no. 4 (2004), pp. 369-379

Publication Year

2004

Keyword(s)

Social capital (Sociology) -- Analysis;  Social capital (Sociology) -- Research;  Social capital (Sociology)

Publisher

Australian Council of Social Service

Language

English

Publisher URL

http://www.acoss.org.au

Copyright

Copyright © 2004 Australian Council of Social Service. Published version of this paper reproduced with the kind permission of the publisher.

ISSN

0157-6321

Full Text

Peer Reviewed