ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses some of the most important concepts of community transformations (by i.a. Tönnies, Durkheim, Schmalenbach, and Castells) and argues for a processual conceptualisation of digital communities. It is posited that online communities are a continuation of changes in the community which have found another outlet. Delanty’s take on communication communities, along with Campbell’s concept of networked religious community, are deployed as accounting for the impact of expressive individualism on the transformations of forms of sociation. The chapter argues that processual conceptualisation of online communities reflects on their malleability and transformative or empowering potential, at the same time emphasising their status of being permanently “in the making.” Next, the question of how to analyse such communities is answered by proposing Herring’s CMDA approach, with reference to posing questions of dimensions of community rather yes/no ones. Then, the three criteria of community, sociability, support, and identity, are discussed. The chapter concludes with a thesis that online forum users create new forms of sociability based on shared religious knowledge and that the dimensions of sociability, identity, and support are observable on all analysed forums, albeit to a varying extent.
