ABSTRACT
Technology has always played a major role in the shaping of human societies. The Internet and communication technology since the 1990s have brought about a fundamental transformation in social relations. Technologically-mediated communities, such as, cyber-communities, online communities, virtual communities, often referred to as TMCs, are bringing about new kinds of social groups, which are polymorphous, highly personalized and lifestyle-oriented, but they can also take more traditional forms, reconstituting families and rural areas and even enabling new political movements. This chapter focuses on some of the issues that are at stake in virtual community, in particular the question of the relation of the real to the virtual. It then assesses the three of the main theorists of virtual community, such as, Howard Rheingold, Manuel Castells and Craig Calhoun. The chapter discusses the major debates on the impact of virtual community. The social forms of technology are varied, but three can be identified: the tool model, the utopian model and the cultural model.
