Student or educator? Sign up with your school email and get 6 months of Pro free.
CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 560

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Anthropology of Online Communities

Wilson, Samuel M., Peterson, Leighton C.·2002·Annual Review of Anthropology
DOI 10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085436
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

▪ Abstract Information and communication technologies based on the Internet have enabled the emergence of new sorts of communities and communicative practices—phenomena worthy of the attention of anthropological researchers. Despite early assessments of the revolutionary nature of the Internet and the enormous transformations it would bring about, the changes have been less dramatic and more embedded in existing practices and power relations of everyday life. This review explores researchers' questions, approaches, and insights within anthropology and some relevant related fields, and it seeks to identify promising new directions for study. The general conclusion is that the technologies comprising the Internet, and all the text and media that exist within it, are in themselves cultural products. Anthropology is thus well suited to the further investigation of these new, and not so new, phenomena.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085436

Cites

4 of 4 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 4 references

Research works printed but not linked: 123

  1. Agre P, 1999, EASST (Eur. Assoc. Study Sci. Technol.) Rev., 18, 3
  2. Agre P, 1997, Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: Critical Explorations of Computing as a Social Practice.
  3. Anderson B, 1983, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
  4. 10.1215/08992363-2-2-1 · DOI
  5. Appadurai A. 1991. Global ethnoscapes: notes and queries for a transnational anthropology. In Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present , ed. RG Fox, pp. 191–210. Santa Fe, NM: Sch. Am. Res. Press
  6. Aronowitz S, 1996, Technoscience and Cyberculture.
  7. Barthes F. 1992. Towards greater naturalism in conceptualizing societies. In Conceptualizing Society , ed. A Kuper, pp. 17–33. London/New York: Routledge
  8. Basch L, 1994, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States.
  9. Benedikt M. 1991. Introduction. In Cyberspace: First Steps , ed. M Benedikt, pp. 1–25. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  10. Berners-Lee T, 1999, Weaving the Web: the Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor.
  11. Boal IA. 1995. A flow of monsters: Luddism and virtual technologies. In Resisting the Virtual Life: the Culture and Politics of Information , ed. J Brook, IA Boal, pp. 3–15. San Francisco: City Lights
  12. 10.1017/CBO9780511812507 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Bordieu P, 1991, Social Theory for a Changing Society.
  14. 10.1353/aq.1999.0036 · DOI
  15. Brook J, 1995, Resisting the Virtual Life: the Culture and Politics of Information.
  16. Brown JS, 2000, The Social Life of Information.
  17. Burbules NC, 1998, Access, 17, 79
  18. Burbules NC, 2000, Watch IT: the Risks and Promises of Information Technologies for Education.
  19. Burkhalter B. 1999. Reading race online: discovering racial identity in Usenet discussions. In Communities in Cyberspace , ed. MA Smith, P Kollock, pp. 60–75. London/New York: Routledge
  20. Caldwell JT, 2000, Electronic Media and Technoculture.
  21. Calhoun C. 1991. Indirect relationships and imagined communities: large-scale social integration and the transformation of everyday life. SeeBordieu & Coleman 1991, pp. 95–120 · DOI
  22. Castells M, 1996, The Rise of the Network Society.
  23. Cherny L, 1999, Conversation and Community: Chat in a Virtual World.
  24. Christensen NB. 1999. (Re)producing Inuit social boundaries on the World Wide Web . 5th Circumpolar Univ. Conf. (CUA), Aberdeen, Scotland
  25. Clark LS. 1998. Dating on the net: teens and the rise of “pure” relationships. SeeJones 1998, pp. 159–83 · DOI
  26. Cole M, 1997, Mind, Culture, and Activity: Seminal Papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition.
  27. 10.1177/089124195024003002 · DOI
  28. 10.1017/CBO9781139164771 · DOI
  29. 10.1215/9780822396765 · DOI
  30. Dery M, 1996, Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century.
  31. 10.1111/j.1468-2451.1997.tb00033.x · DOI
  32. Dietrich D. 1997. (Re)-fashioning the techno-erotic woman: gender and textuality in the cybercultural matrix. In Virtual Culture , ed. SG Jones, pp. 169–84. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage · DOI
  33. 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.307 · DOI
  34. 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1989.tb01049.x · DOI
  35. Ebo BL, 1998, Cyberghetto or Cybertopia?: Race, Class, and Gender on the Internet., 10.5040/9798216188025 · DOI
  36. 2001, The Economist,, 18
  37. English-Lueck J, 1998, COSSA Congressional Seminar.
  38. 10.1086/204266 · DOI
  39. Ess C, 2001, Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village., 10.1515/9780791490488 · DOI
  40. Fernback J. 1999. There is a there there. In Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net , ed. S Jones, pp. 203–20. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage · DOI
  41. 10.1525/aa.1953.55.2.02a00020 · DOI
  42. 10.1146/annurev.an.18.100189.002021 · DOI · Paper page
  43. Garfinkel S, 2000, Database Nation: the Death of Privacy in the 21st Century.
  44. Gibson W, 1984, Neuromancer.
  45. 10.1007/978-1-349-16161-4 · DOI
  46. 10.2307/2783305 · DOI
  47. 10.1525/can.1994.9.3.02a00080 · DOI
  48. 10.1525/aa.1994.96.3.02a00100 · DOI
  49. Goodwin MH, 1990, He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization Among Black Children.
  50. Gore AJ, 1991, The Futurist, 25, 21
  51. 10.1525/var.1992.8.2.39 · DOI
  52. Gupta A, 1997, Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science.
  53. Hakken D, 1999, Cyborgs@cyberspace?: an Ethnographer Looks to the Future.
  54. Hakken D, 1993, Computing Myths, Class Realities: an Ethnography of Technology and Working People in Sheffield, England.
  55. Hamman R, Cybersociology
  56. Hamman RB, 1997, Cybersociol. Mag.
  57. Hamman RB. 2000. Computernetze als verb indendes Element von Gemeinschaftsnetzen: Studie über die Wirkungen der Nutzung von Computernetzen auf bestehende soziale Gemeinschaften. In Virtuelle Gruppen: Charakterstika und Problemdimensionen , ed. U Thiedeke, pp. 221–43. Opladen/Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher
  58. Hannerz U, 1996, Transnational Connections.
  59. Hannerz U. 1998. Transnational research. In Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology , ed. HR Bernard, pp. 235–56. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira
  60. Haraway D. 1993. A cyborg manifesto. In The Cultural Studies Reader , ed. S During, pp. 271–91. London: Routledge
  61. 10.1017/CBO9780511489839 · DOI · Paper page
  62. Heim M, 1993, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality.
  63. 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1986.tb00104.x · DOI · Paper page
  64. 10.1017/CBO9781139174077.002 · DOI · Paper page
  65. 10.1177/1525822X9901100204 · DOI
  66. Jones S, 1999, Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net., 10.4135/9781452231471 · DOI · Paper page
  67. Jones SG, 1998, CyberSociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community.
  68. Keating EL, 2000, Texas Linguist. Forum, 43, 99
  69. Kelty CM. 2000. Scale and convention: programmed languages in a regulated America . PhD thesis. MIT, Cambridge
  70. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett B. 1996. The electronic vernacular. In Connected: Engagements with Media , ed. GE Marcus, pp. 21–65. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  71. Kolko BE, 2000, Race in Cyberspace.
  72. 10.1177/089443939601400103 · DOI
  73. Kroker A, 1994, Data Trash: the Theory of the Virtual Class.
  74. Latour B. 1992. Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artifacts. In Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change , ed. WE Bijker, J Law, pp. 225–58. Cambridge, MA: MIT
  75. Latour B, 1996, Aramis, or, The Love of Technology.
  76. 10.4324/9780203169537 · DOI
  77. Lyon D, 1988, The Information Society: Issues and Illusions.
  78. 10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.000523 · DOI · Paper page
  79. Margolis M, 2000, Politics as Usual: the Cyberspace “Revolution.”, 10.4135/9781452233475 · DOI · Paper page
  80. Markham AN, 1998, Life Online: Researching Real Experience in Virtual Space.
  81. Marshall J, 2001, Soc. Anal., 45, 81
  82. 10.1111/j.1835-9310.1998.tb00195.x · DOI
  83. Merrifield J, 1997, Life at the Margins: Literacy, Language, and Technology in Everyday Life.
  84. Miller D, 2000, The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach.
  85. Morgan MM. 2001. Community. In Key Terms in Language and Culture , ed. A Duranti, pp. 31–33. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell
  86. Morse M, 1998, Virtualities: Television, Media Art, and Cyberculture.
  87. Morton H. 1999. Islanders in space: Tongans online. In Small Worlds, Global Lives: Islands and Migration , ed. J Connell, R King, pp. 55–74. London: Cassell
  88. Morton H, 2001, Soc. Anal., 45, 3
  89. Morton H, 2002, Tongans Overseas: Between Two Shores.
  90. Negroponte N, 1995, Being Digital.
  91. Nichols B, 1994, Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture.
  92. O'Brien J. 1999. Writing in the body: gender (re)production in online interaction. In Communities in Cyberspace , ed. MA Smith, P Kollock, pp. 76–106. London/New York: Routledge
  93. Oldenburg R, 1989, The Great Good Places.
  94. Paccagnella L, 1997, J. Comput. Med. Commun.
  95. 10.2307/3317870 · DOI
  96. 10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.002423 · DOI · Paper page
  97. Poster M, 1990, The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Social Context.
  98. 10.1086/220015 · DOI
  99. Rheingold H, 1993, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier.
  100. 10.1177/009365087014001005 · DOI · Paper page
  101. Robins K, 1999, Times of the Technoculture.
  102. Ruby J, 2000, Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology.
  103. 10.1177/1525822X0001200101 · DOI
  104. Schuler D, 1996, New Community Networks: Wired for Change.
  105. Sherry J, 2002, Land, Wind and Hard Words: a Story of Navajo Activism.
  106. 10.1525/jlin.1996.6.2.161 · DOI · Paper page
  107. 10.1525/var.1998.14.2.63 · DOI
  108. Spitulnik D. 2000. Documenting radio culture as lived experience: reception studies and the mobile machine in Zambia. In African Broadcast Cultures: Radio and Public Life , ed. R Fardon, G Furniss, pp. 144–63. Oxford: Currey
  109. Spitulnik D. 2001. Media. In Key Terms in Language and Culture , ed. A Duranti, pp. 143–46. Oxford: Blackwell
  110. Steiner P, 1993, The New Yorker., 69, 61
  111. Stephenson N, 1992, Snow Crash.
  112. Sterling B, 1986, Mirrorshades: the Cyberpunk Anthology.
  113. Stone AR, 1995, The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age.
  114. 10.1080/713856137 · DOI
  115. Thomsen SR, Straubhaar JD, Bolyard DM. 1998. Ethnomethodology and the study of online communities: exploring the cyber streets. IRISS '98 Conf. Pap. Int. Conf . Bristol, UK , pp. 25–27
  116. Turkle S, 1984, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit.
  117. Turkle S, 1995, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet.
  118. 10.4324/9780203991367 · DOI · Paper page
  119. Wellman B, Gulia M. 1999. Virtual communities as communities: net surfers don't ride alone. In Communities in Cyberspace , ed. MA Smith, P Kollock, pp. 167–95. London/New York: Routledge
  120. Wheeler D. 2001. New technologies, old cuture. In Culture, Technology, Communication , ed. C Ess, pp. 187–212. Albany: State Univ. NY Press · DOI
  121. Wilson EJI. 2000. Closing the digital divide: an initial review. Briefing the President . Internet Policy Institute:http://www.internetpolicy.org/publications/index.html
  122. Winston B, 1998, Media Technology and Society: a History from the Telegraph to the Internet.
  123. Wolf ER, 1982, Europe and the People Without History.

Cited by

Metadata

Authors
Wilson, S. M., & Peterson, L. C.
Venue
Annual Review of Anthropology
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
2002-10
Volume
31
Issue
1
Pages
449-467
ISSN
  • 0084-6570 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-4290
DOI
10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085436
OpenAlex
W2157127722
Cited by
560
References
4
FWCI
8.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.