The Individual within the Collective

The Individual within the Collective: Virtual Ideology and the Realization of Collective Principles, Jan Fernback, (1996) Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety ed. Steve Jones, Thousand Oacks: Sage Publications Ltd.

Moderators:

• Yiorgos Bagakis
• Inge Hoonte
• Laura Macchini

Keywords: collective, computer-mediated communication, public sphere, counterpublics, virtual community, Gemainschaft, Gesellschaft, social contract, communications decancy act, virtual agora

Summary of key points raised in the text:

• Like in the physical world, there are tensions between the individual and the collective in cyberspace.

• Computer-mediated communication (CMC) users assume that they can overcome the tyranny of geography through cyberspace.

• Cyberspace has become a new arena for participation in public life - what agora was to the Greeks - an arena for political debate and education.

• Habermas: the public sphere - cyberspace might serve as a public sphere similar to the coffee houses in 18th century France and Britain, where public debate was taking place.

• Fraser's critiicism towards Habermas: Borgeois men dominated these public spheres where they practiced their own skills of governance.

• Counterpublics(Fraser): gays, feminists, anarchists, and other factions tend to form in response to the dominant public spheres.

• Rheingold: Virtual communities perform the functions of Gemeinschaft community - Our need for human association is so strong that we will seek to build communities of interest in cyberspace because we might have no better option.

Discussion Notes & Afterthoughts: