Browsing by Author "Lipasti, Laura"

The changes in our society have had their ramifications in the sense of community in neighborhoods, the latest big social change being the fast alteration of the media environment. Digital forms of communications allow people to communicate almost instantly all over the world. Yet people still tend to form social ties locally, and a growing interest to local themes has been on the rise. The aim of this case study was to find out which underlying housing and socio-economic factors affect the sense of community in neighborhoods, sense of community in areal Facebook groups and the activity of use of these groups, and if there is overlapping in the factors affecting these. The other aim was to examine if communality in areal Facebook groups or the activity of their use increases sense of community in neighborhoods in Helsinki. The research was descriptive, and the objective was not necessarily to make generalizations to the whole study population. Two differing views have shaped the grand theories of sense of community in neighborhoods. In the first wave, there was a division between idealizing the feudal communities, where a strong dependency of neighborly relationships was a given and the relationships of the urban neighborhoods, where residents were seen as isolated and unsatisfied. The changing society shifted the view to examining relationships as a personal network and the form of communities in the overlapping of these networks. These two views differ most importantly in their views of the meaning of distance to social relationships, and the importance of neighborly relationships in general. In the Internet era relationships can be seen to be formed in networks, but neighborhoods and physical proximity still carry a meaning to local relationships. Two different research areas, in terms of common housing types and the amount of children in families, were chosen from neighborhoods in Helsinki; the northern study area around Paloheinä, Pakila and Torpparinmäki, and the southern area around Kallio and Vallila districts. A questionnaire was sent to three different areal Facebook groups and the total amount of responses received was 335. Sum variables were formed to indicate the sense of community among the respondents, sense of community in their areal Facebook group and the use activity of that Facebook group. These variables were then further analyzed statistically and compared to each other and the respondents’ background factors. The responses split up quite evenly between the two study areas, and the background information reported by the respondents reflected the same factors that these areas were chosen by. All the sum variables correlated positively with each other, thus indicating that those who had a greater sense of community in their neighborhood also possessed a greater sense of online community in their areal Facebook group. The respondents from the northern study area had altogether a higher sense of community, sense of community in the areal Facebook group, and a more active use of the group. The results reflected the ones from previous studies, as a higher sense of community was attached to older age, longer residence in the area, apartment ownership, having children in the family and living in a one-family house. Living in a one-family house was also attached to higher sense of community in the areal Facebook groups, as well as having children, long residence in the area and apartment ownership. According to the results in this case study, some of the same background factors produced a higher value in the sense of community in neighborhoods and the sense of community in the areal Facebook groups studied. These shared factors and the correlations between the sum variables indicate that higher sense of community in areal Facebook groups could lead to a higher sense of community in neighborhoods as well. Distance in relationship still possesses a meaning as neighbors form areal groups in social media that can develop into lively communities.