ABSTRACT
The chapter elaborates on what is actually self-evident – that community may be based on physical co-presence. It starts with a current trend in much city development, in which the lively and liveable city is framed as an ideal. The challenge is however that factors like segregation and shyness stop people from connecting with any occasional passers-by. By the concept of ‘chat zones’ we suggest that certain places are better suited at fostering social venues. The case of cafés is explored, in which especially the processes of recognition are elaborated on empirically. A table is introduced to suggest a typology of community types (resource communities, messaging communities, verbal communities, place communities, residal communities, incidental communities) in relation to time-place dimensions. We suggest that time-space dimensions are more closely attended to from the social sciences and that interaction with the digital domain is given a stronger attention.
