VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

Putnam has developed a theory of social capital to explain the effect of decreasing community participation and civic engagement on declinin g institutional performance. Subsequently, there has been much specula tion as to whether emerging virtual communities can counteract this tr end. The authors apply the findings of computer-mediated communication and virtual communities to the networks, norms, and trust of social c apital and also examine the possible effects of virtual communities on the privatization of leisure time. They conclude that social capital and civic engagement will increase when virtual communities develop ar ound physically based communities and when these virtual communities f oster additional communities of interest Through a preliminary analysi s, the authors identify potential communities of interest including ed ucation, exchange of general community information, and opportunities for government and political participation They conclude.with a discus sion of current trends and research needs.