In a paper that preceded their article "Social networks and the study of relations: networks as method, metaphor and form", Knox et al (2006) write the following (I haven't got the published article handy, sorry): In fact, the earliest use of the network as a theory in anthropology is not in the work of Bott (1957) and Barnes (1954), but in Radcliffe-Brown’s presidential address “On Social Structure”, published in JRAI in 1940. Here the concept of social networks emerges as central to his clarifications as to what constitutes social structure. Making a clear distinction between the identification of an empirical social structure, as “the set of actually existing relations, at a given moment of time, which link together certain human beings” (1940: 4) and the role of the anthropologist to reveal structural form, Radcliffe-Brown contrasted the fact that “human beings are connected by a complex network of social relations” (1940: 2) with what he saw as the scientific role of the anthropologist to create abstractions regarding the general characteristics of these social networks, or social structure. All the best John Reference Knox, Hannah; Savage, Mike; Harvey, Penny Source: Economy and Society, Volume 35, Number 1, Number 1/February 2006 , pp. 113-140(28) Dr John Postill Senior Lecturer in Media Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield S11 8UZ United Kingdom +44 114 225 4628 j.postill@shu.ac.uk http://www.johnpostill.co.uk ------ Original Message ------ Received: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:51:14 PM BST From: Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> To: aoir list <air-l@aoir.org> Subject: [Air-L] "social networks" preceded "network community"

Jose wrote in the last digest: "I think that this comparison is similar to that of VCs and 'Networked Communities', a term that has been there long before 'social networks'."

Sorry, Jose, but I think you're wrong.

I.

The explicit use of the term social network goes back to the 1950s, with J.A. Barnes, the Cambridge anthropologist. Wikipedia has a handy historical section on this, and for more detail, see

Linton Freeman, The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science. Vancouver: Empirical Press, 2004.

(I have a shorter article, as the first chapter of Wellman & Berkowitz, _Social Structures_).

What's happening is that the social software mavens have been taking over "social network" as their own. There's been a lot of fuss on Wikipedia differentiating between the "social network" and the "social network service" article.

II.

I think I invented the term "networked comunities". Certainly I started using it much later -- in the 1970s. Dredging my vitae, it was probably used early on in:

Barry Wellman, "The Network Nature of Future Communities." Society for the Study of Social Problems, Aug., 1972. New York.(if you want to consider conference papers)

and in print:

Paul Craven and Barry Wellman, "The Network City". Sociological Inquiry 43 (Winter, 1973): 57-88.

Barry Wellman, "The Form and Function of Future Communities." Pp. 301-313 in Futures for Central Canada, edited by Larry S. Bourne, et al. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1974.

Barry Wellman, "Community Transformations: Present and Future." Pp. 213-26 in Participatory Democracy in Action, edited by Dan Chekki. Sahibabad, India: Vikas, 1979.

Barry Wellman, "The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers." American Journal of Sociology 84 (March, 1979): 1201-31.

Barry Wellman and Barry Leighton, "Networks, Neighborhoods and Communities," Urban Affairs Quarterly 14 (March, 1979):363-90.

Barry Wellman, Peter Carrington and Alan Hall "Networks as Personal Communities." Pp. 130-84 in Social Structures: A Network Approach, edited by Barry Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

You could look it up as Casey used to say, as my vitae is online. Alas, these papers were written before word processing, so I don't have a handy search mechanism available.

And I'd rather write new stuff that search old.

Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________

S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/