Linking Public Spaces and Online Networks: A Case Study of a Regional Neighbourhood

This paper will explore the links between ICT infrastructures and social communities at a regional scale. We argue that there is a need to move beyond the technologically deterministic rhetoric of the ‘digital city’ and to consider the subtle changes occurring in the ways that people live their lives in everyday spaces as a result of ICT changes. This paper will address how such ICT infrastructures, and in particular broadband internet access, become localized within a community; and the broader impacts this may have on social inclusion and sense of place within a neighbourhood setting. We introduce a model for understanding these changes through looking at the links between access to public spaces for ICT use and levels of social inclusion in the context of a neighbourhood setting. We contextualize the study of the interplay between the invisible networks and material world of regional urban and rural life through a case study of internet use in a regional town in South-West UK.