| Abstract: | It is over 30 years since the concept of community without propinquity was first proposed. According to this concept, communities might be spatially far-flung, but nevertheless close-knit, intimate and held together by shared interests and values, rather than by geographical proximity. Although the idea of community without propinquity has been heavily criticised, the advent of advanced telecommunications and the emergence of cyberspace mean that a reappraisal of the concept, and of the changing nature of community generally, is warranted. The paper undertakes such a reappraisal. A review of the literature on cyberspace reveals several reasons why the social effects of advanced telecommunications and the Internet might be less than is sometimes predicted. Setting this discussion in the context of other social science discourses on new urbanism, consumption rather than production as a basis for city life, postmodernism, and 'the third way' in politics, shows that place and local community are, and will continue to be, fundamental to the functioning of society. Cyberspace might have annihilated distance but not place. |
