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Community and Trust in the Network Society. The Case of Virtual Communities

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Trust (Trust 2020)

Part of the book series: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics ((SAPERE,volume 54))

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Abstract

In the uncertain scenario that surrounds today’s man, there is a new need for spaces to share, to establish new relationships of mutual trust. As the new technology advances, virtual communities are one of the responses to such need. In this revolutionary media environment, one might ask how a quite strong relationship of mutual trust can be created and nurtured in a virtual community, in relation to real objective relations and to the virtual community itself, as well as the technology that makes it possible, when it is, by definition, an ever-changing system. In this respect, some issues have been found to promote such relationships and others to (un)willingly hinder it. Therefore, the concept of trust should be re-semanticised to have a new relational paradigm built on ethical grounds, in which the individual becomes aware of what resources are required to cope with the insecurity of an increasingly uncertain society, partly with the help of virtual communities. Only through a jointly responsible behaviour, aimed at filling the gap that is inherent to the very concept of (virtual) community, can one trust something else—whether an individual, a technology or the community itself—aware of the hint of “magic” that is implied in the very etymology of the concept of trust.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    From a historical-social point of view, uncertainty has actually always gone hand in hand with humans. What changes in today’s world is that such phenomenon has reappeared at full strength in Western societies, after years of prosperity and financial security, such as the Seventies and Eighties (Millefiorini 2015, 288–291; Beck 1986; Sennett 1998; Giddens 1991; Inglehart 1998; Bauman 2001).

  2. 2.

    This paper was written with full and absolute awareness of the current trend towards a hybridization of our online and offline dimensions. The space within which we make our choices and within which we act or operate is increasingly permeated by the digital; however, from an ethical perspective, in order that we might foster the more positive aspects and, at the same time, curb those which are more negative, wemay go back to considering these as two separate dimensions, albeitmerely from a theoretical view point. Though the world of the so-called “virtual communities” is exceedingly vast and articulated, with various typologies which differ in terms of protocol and format, deontology and ethics can, however, help us to re-semanticize our relational dimension in these contexts. They can help us to understand more deeply and with greater awareness the reciprocity of influences between and with in such spaces. Hence, in this paper, we decided to start from one of the earliest definitions of the virtual community and to separate online and offline dimensions throughout the development of our discourse. This has enabled us to pin point certain behavioural aspects more typical of unconnected spaces as well as others more typical of digitally connected spaces, and indeed the possibilities they open up, or otherwise, in their ever-growing and inevitable fusion. This then leads us to how it can therefore be more ‘virtuous’ to make choices and to act within the current communicational context (Fabris 2018; Vitali Rosati 2012, pp. 152–153).

  3. 3.

    In this context, virtuous means respectful of the inspiring principles of an online community, such as the sense of belonging, sharing, mutual respect and truthful communication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Veronica Neri

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  1. Veronica Neri
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Correspondence to Veronica Neri .

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  1. Pisa University, Pisa, Italy

    Adriano Fabris

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Neri, V. (2020). Community and Trust in the Network Society. The Case of Virtual Communities. In: Fabris, A. (eds) Trust. Trust 2020. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44018-3_10

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