The making of neighbourhood communities: Urban and digital spaces of common?

A Conference Summary: Digital Communities — Social Proximity from a Spatial Distance

Social digital platforms are playing an increasingly important role in the development of interpersonal relationships, communities of solidarity, and social cohesion. But it's not quite that simple.

At the highly esteemed conference “Digital Communities - Social Proximity from a Spatial Distance,” organized by the Institute of Social Science at Kiel University in cooperation with the Ferdinand-Tönnies Society and the German Sociological Association (DGS), Section Sociological Theory, on July 18-19, 2024, at the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, theoretical foundations and empirical evidence were presented and critically examined.

Dieter Haselbach opened the conference with remarks on how the concept of community has changed due to digital transformations compared to traditional communities, drawing on the theories of sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies. Building on this, Edoardo Cumitini further developed Tönnies' dual logic within the context of digital society. Jakob Wiesinger elaborated the concept of community as a possible approach to digital communication away from the public sphere. Andreas Hepp's approach emphasized the role of technical infrastructures and algorithms in shaping communities.

Empirical research presented at the conference was diverse and of high quality. Insa Pruisken conducted a social network analysis using Twitter data to explore the relationships within American church communities. Katrin Döveling showcased a study on emotions within digital affect cultures, and Sandra Robinson examined the strange intimacies fostered by digital platforms, populism, and digital communities.

My presentation on the creation of digital neighborhood communities as spaces of commonality within urban and digital spheres was followed by Silke van Dyk's critical explration on the exploitation of digital communities under the concept of community capitalism. The conference concluded with Vivien Holdosi's approach of neo-tribes and their potential to either escape or succumb to capitalist, institutional, and corporate influences.