The community in transformation. Analysis of the change in the community of the “Doctoral Programme in Critical Social Psychology” produced by ICTs.

Abstract

Taking to account Rheingold’s definition of virtual community we pretend to perform an analysis of the community of “PhD in Critical Social Psychology” (DPSC). The introduction and the massive use of the ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies) has produced a very significant transformation in the way that we participate in a community, a transformation that can be found in the DPSC. In this communication we pretend to analyse how the introduction of this new kind of relationship has generated changes in the modality of our interactions and identity as members of the Community of “PhD in Critical Social Psychology”. To illustrate this we shall interview the DPSC coordinators. We shall analyse the transformation of DPSC judging from the theory of P. Lévy. Besides, using last month’s abstract of the community of DPSC we will see how this community is virtualized and actualized (mailing list, enrolment, space and time, etc). Also, we shall analyse how this community is working in the virtuality, its social interaction transformation, the language and expressions used, the established power relationships, the identity changes of the community as a whole and its members’.