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Bio: Keith N. Hampton is an assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Toronto in sociology, and a B.A. in sociology from the University of Calgary. Before joining the faculty at the Annenberg School, he held the position of Assistant Professor and Class of '43 Career Development Chair in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests focus on the relationship between new information and communication technologies, social networks, and the urban environment. He has offered graduate- and undergraduate- level courses in social network analysis, new media and society, and research methods. In 2001 he was awarded the M.I.T. Graduate Teaching Award. He is the immediate Past-Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Communication and Information Technologies (CITASA). He is an active member of the editorial board of the journal, Information Communication and Society (iCS) and a former book review editor for the journal New Media and Society. His research has received a number of awards and honors in recognition of his contributions. In 2007, he received an award for Public Sociology from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Communication and Information Technologies, and, in 2004, an honorable mention from the ASA Section on Community and Urban Sociology Robert E. Park Article Award for the most distinguished scholarly paper in urban and community sociology. In 2003, the Media Ecology Association awarded him the Harold A. Innis Biannual Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Media Ecology, and the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association awarded him the Herbert Dordick Biennial Dissertation Award. Also in 2001, he was award a Canadian Policy Research Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institute for Health Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Policy Research Initiative. Hampton’s career interest in social networks, community, and new technologies is based on a history of participation in empirically based research projects. He is currently involved in a number of studies:Social Interaction in Public Spaces: A Longitudinal Study - This study utilizes an archive of Super 8 time-lapse films of public spaces from New York and around the world that were made in the 1970s through the present day by William H. Whyte and the Project for Public Spaces. The content of these tapes is being compared qualitatively to digital video of the same and comparable public spaces captured 2007-2010. The goal is to measure change in everyday public interactions over time and as result of mobile phones and other societal changes. Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community Survey - A telephone survey of 2,500 adults. This project examines the role of the Internet and cell phones in the way that people interact with members of their core social networks. This study explores the role of new technology in social isolation, the size and diversity of core networks, participation in neighborhoods, voluntary groups, public spaces, and the diversity of people's social networks. The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces - It is unclear if wireless Internet use in public spaces will facilitate greater engagement with co-present others, or encourage social disengagement. This study investigates how mobile technologies, focusing on Wi-Fi use but not excluding mobile phones, video games, portable music devices, etc., impact the use of public space. Updating William H. Whyte's classic study of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, this project is based on observations of nine wireless Internet enabled public parks, plazas and markets in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto. The goal is to identify how mobile devices augment local interactions and people's social networks more broadly. i-Neighbors.org - A free, public resource at www.i-neighbors.org where people can find their geographic neighborhoods online and form corresponding digital communities. The i-Neighbors project investigates in detail the specific contexts where Internet use affords local interactions and facilitates community involvement. i-Neighbors supports over 8,000 neighborhoods in the US and Canada and delivers over half a million messages to neighbors each month. Past Projects: e-Neighbors - Addresses concerns about the impact of Internet and computer use on community and family life. Through an empirical analysis of four case studies in the Boston area followed over three years this research project i) examines the current relationship between Internet use and the size and composition of people's social networks, and ii) explores the potential for new information and communication technologies to expand social networks, social capital and community involvement at the neighborhood level. This project is motivated by recent concerns that Americans have became more cynical; are spending less time with friends, relatives and neighbors; and have become less involved in clubs and organizations. Past research has concluded with mixed results as to whether the Internet will further dissociate people from those around them, or if it holds the potential to reconnect the disaffiliated. The adult residents of four Boston area neighborhoods were asked to complete detailed surveys for three years on the composition, structure and supportive content of their personal and neighborhood social networks. |