'On Notions and Practices of Community' and 'Civic Participation'

Note: Author no longer working on this paper.This short foray into questions of ‘civic participation’ and ‘community networks’ will outline and highlight the need in Community Networking and Informatics research to more clearly and rigorously unpack the term ‘community-based initiative’. If we are to better understand ‘how community networking can act as a catalyst of local, regional, national and international civic participation’, then probing the discourses that constitute ‘community’ and how they operate through ‘communal activity’ would seem to be a key point of interrogation.Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) - Initiative on the New Economy Public Outreach Grant; Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN)