Little Boxes, Glocalization, and Networked Individualism

Much thinking about digital cities is in terms of community groups. Yet, the world is composed of social networks and not of groups. This paper traces how communities have changed from densely-knit “Little Boxes” (densely-knit, linking people door-to-door) to “Glocalized” networks (sparselyknit but with clusters, linking households both locally and globally) to “Networked Individualism” (sparsely -knit, linking individuals with little regard to space). The transformation affects design considerations for computer systems that would support digital cities. 1 From Little Boxes to Social Networks The developed world is in the midst of a paradigm shift both in the ways in which people and institutions are actually connected. It is a shift from being bound up in homogenous “little boxes” to surfing life through diffuse, variegated social networks. Although the transformation began in the pre-Internet 1960s, the proliferation of the Internet both reflects and facilitates the ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: DIGITALCITIES
• Authors: Barry Wellman
• Keywords: Digital Cities, DIGITALCITIES 2001, Internet Technology, Little Boxes, Social Networks