A Sense of Virtual Community

I just read an article by Blanchard and Markus for my Community Informatics class. Here is the article
itself:blanchard-2002.pdf

This article, and many other community and internet resources, can be also found at our class website.

The introduction lists some existing definitions for “communities” in current literature (great list of references!) and examines how these definitions might apply to virtual communities. One framework, by McMillian and Chavis (1986), is:

• Feelings of membership
• Feelings of influence
• Integration and fulfillment of needs
• Shared emotional connection

McMillian and Chavis also proposed a theoretical model that specifies the origin of each of the above dimensions and also how they interrelate to produce sense of community.

The article also describes the difference between a settlement, or neighborhood, and a community — in both the ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ worlds. Finally, the article shares the results of the authors’ analysis of a virtual settlement, MSN, and in doing so identify some key characteristics provided by the members as reasons for why MSN is a community. The authors also share some interesting thoughts on identity. Below is a quick overview of the reasons most commonly provided by members. The authors elaborate and define each reason:

• Recognition
• Identification
• Support
• Relationship
• Emotional Attachment
• Obligation

Again, the article is uploaded at the beginning of this entry or available on the class website. Happy reading!

-Blanchard, A.L., & Markus, M.L. (2002). Sense of virtual community- Maintaining the experience of belonging. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
-McMillian, D.W., & Chavis, D.M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition of theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 6-23.