The special issue of American Behavioral Scientist edited by myself and Vikki Katz is now in print. Vikki and I put together this issue based on a workshop we organized during the 2014 meeting of the National Communication Association. We bring together a great set of authors who intersect in the areas of community, digital media, and urban studies. The issue is relevant for anyone studying new media, virtual community, social networks, urban sociology, urban planning, or community and urban informatics. In our introduction to the issue we argue that:

The split between sociology and communication has had consequences for scholars in both fields. As these traditions moved further from each other, sociologists concerned with local ecologies, place, and “neighborhood effects” have generally neglected the role of media and variation in access to communication technology. Researchers who have focused on media, information, and communication processes have neglected the role of place and have decoupled communication technologies from the contexts in which people use them. This schism has inhibited the advancement of a common interest to understand the factors that influence social integration. This special issue of American Behavioral Scientist intends to bridge the gap between research by scholars in sociology and those in communication, information, and media studies about the role of new technologies in everyday life.

Contributions include:

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
The Chicago School and Ecology: A Reappraisal for the Digital Era


Lewis A. Friedland
Networks in Place


Jeffrey Lane
The Digital Street: An Ethnographic Study of Networked Street Life in Harlem


Vikki S. Katz and Carmen Gonzalez
Community Variations in Low-Income Latino Families’ Technology Adoption and Integration


Yong-Chan Kim and Eui-Kyung Shin
Localized Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Seoul’s Urban Neighborhoods


Keith N. Hampton
Persistent and Pervasive Community: New Communication Technologies and the Future of Community

You can find the full issue here.