Contents this month
Community cohesion down the pub
Our article last month about social
networking systems and community
cohesion was initiated by a piece on the Radio 4 Today programme
by Rory Cellan-Jones. Rory made the following comments on our article,
which rather reinforce what we were saying.
“Interesting piece... I think so far the internet has proved
better at magnifying differences and disputes rather than promoting
cohesion - just look at the heat and noise generated by blogs…
“I think social networks can bring together and improve
communication between like-minded people - not quite so clear how
they reach out across social divides… I think that has to
happen in the real world first - then perhaps be reflected in online
groups. I visited a village in Cheshire recently that was striving
to be carbon-neutral - the campaign had brought the village together...
but it was quiz nights in the pub that were helping rather than
facebook or myspace.”
