- Wellman2001: Wellman, B. (2001). Computer networks as social networks. Science, 293(14 September), 2031-2034. [available here∞]

Discussion leader/summarizer: PaulResnick

Key Points/Claims

The metaphor of "group" as used in terms like "groupware" is misdirecting our attention toward groups that have clear boundaries with strong interconnections, situations where the people I am connected to are connected to each other. Even in our geographic "communities", he argues that people no longer interact "door-to-door", but instead "household-to-household" or even "person-to-person".

Thus, it makes more sense to rely on a metaphor of "networks" rather than the more constrained notion of "groups." In a network-centric view, you can start with any individual as the center of the social universe and get a different picture of how things are connected.

Critique

The contrast between groups and networks is a useful one. With the newtork perspective, you are drawn towards the individual as the unit of analysis. Who is the person connected to? Who or what do they identify with? How does information move through the network? With the group perspective, one is drawn towards the group as the unit of analysis, with a presumption that changes occur at a group level rather than an individual level.

Wellman may be staking out too extreme of a position, though. The mere fact of individuals having choices of which collectivities to participate in, and having the opportunity to be members of more than one, does not mean that each of those collectivities may not have some notion of boundaries. Even with friendship networks, there are cliques one can identify where everyone is connected and there is some notion of in/outside the clique. And certainly with other kinds of communities one can join, such as clubs or religious congregations, there are some boundaries for the group.

Connections with other readings, ideas, etc.

Others, such as James Coleman, have argued that closure in social networks is an important form of "capital". If my children's friends are also my friends' children, then it is much more likely that we'll be able to keep the kids off drugs.

We will find the notion of groups or communities, with some notion of boundaries, useful during this course in a variety of ways. But it will still be helpful to remind ourselves of the permeability of those boundaries and the connections beyond the boundaries that some people may have but others do not have.