Social networks and social capital: Rethinking theory in community informatics

The emergence of community informatics as a research community was a response to the practical experience of communities adapting to the rapid changes brought on by new information technologies, known outside the United States as information and communications technologies. Based on a growing empirical literature we can begin to find patterns consistent with fundamental theoretical formulations. In this article, we are concerned with the related theories of social capital and social networks as taken up in community informatics scholarship. We review these theories carefully rather than taking concepts for granted. In the end, we hope that this analysis can help usher in a new stage of community informatics research, where empirically testing theoretical propositions can be the basis for research design. Theory in community informatics is necessary in order to give coherence to what we know about technology in communities, as well as to help to relate this knowledge to all other aspects of our social experience. In this sense, theory is needed inside community informatics as well as in relating our field to other research foci, be they social informatics or many other lines of research into the information society