Keith N. Hampton is an Assistant
Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
He received his PhD and MA from the University
of Toronto in sociology, and a BA in sociology from the University of
Calgary. His research interests focus on the relationship between information
and communication technologies, social networks, and the urban environment.
Recent projects include:
Social Interaction in Public Spaces: A Longitudinal Study -
This study utilizes an archive of Super 8 time-lapse films of public spaces from New York and around the world that were made in the 1970s through
the present day by William H. Whyte and the Project for Public Spaces. The content of these tapes is being compared qualitatively to digital video
of the same and comparable public spaces captured 2007-2009. The goal is to measure change in everyday public interactions over time and as result
of mobile phones and other societal changes.
Pew Internet and American Life Project: Community and Social Networks -
A telephone survey of 2,400 adults. The survey asks questions about personal social networks, network diversity, neighborhood involvement, and
participation in public spaces. This project addresses the influence of different types of media use on privatism.
The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces -
A growing number of cities have announced plans or are in the early stages of deploying municipal broadband wireless networks; Muni Wi-Fi.
These projects promise untethered Internet access in private, public, and semi-public spaces. It is unclear if wireless Internet use in
public spaces will facilitate greater engagement with co-present others, or encourage social disengagement. This study investigates how mobile
technologies, focusing on Wi-Fi use but not excluding mobile phones, etc., impact the use of public space in select North American cities.
Updating William H. Whyte's classic study of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, this project is based on ethnographic observations of
nine Wi-Fi enabled public spaces in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto. The goal is to identify how mobile devices
augment local interactions and people's social networks more broadly.
i-neighbors.org -
This project puts the findings of the e-Neighbors and Netville studies into practice.
i-neighbors.org is a a free,
public resource where people find their geographic neighborhoods online
and form corresponding digital communities. The i-neighbors project
investigates in detail the specific contexts where Internet use affords local
interactions and facilitates community involvement. I-neighbors.org also looks at
"e-democracy," the potential for new information and communication technologies (ICTs)
to expand political participation. This project is a "public sociology," putting the results of empirical research into
practice to inform the public and policy makers of the potential
for new technologies to positively affect people and their communities.
e-Neighbors - Addresses concerns about the impact of Internet
and computer use on community and family life. Through an empirical analysis
of four case studies in the Boston area that were followed over three years
this research project i) examines
the relationship between Internet use and the size and composition
of people's social networks, and ii) explores the potential for new information
and communication technologies to expand social networks, social capital
and community involvement at the neighborhood level.
Netville - The Netville project is a window into the not so distant
future, providing a glimpse of how social relationships will change as
a result of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Located in suburban
Toronto the "wired suburb" of Netville was a three-year investigation
of how living in a newly developed residential community, equipped with
a series of advanced computer and communication technologies as part of
its design, affects work, community and family relations.
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This study examines the impact of wireless Internet use (wi-fi) on urban public spaces, wi-fi users, and others who inhabit these spaces. Through extensive observations of seven parks, plazas, and markets in four North American cities and surveys of laptop users in those sites, how this new technology is related to processes of democratic participation, privatism, and social interaction is explored. Findings reveal that wi-fi use within urban public spaces affords interactions with existing acquaintances that are more diverse than those associated with mobile phone use. However, the level of social diversity to which wi-fi users are exposed is less than that of most users of these spaces. Although urban public spaces are not a public realm for wi-fi users, the activities in which they engage do contribute to broader participation in the public sphere.
Coincidentally, this past weekend the New York Times Freakonomics blog posted an article that discussed similar findings to what we reported in our paper, that there is a tendency for cafe owners to view wi-fi users as ‘wireless squatters’ and to push them out. The Freakonomics blog post was based on a study of Paris coffee shops.
The NM&S paper was written a couple years ago and ends where a more recent project on the ‘Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces’ begins. This broader study of wireless Internet use is based on observations of over 1300 laptop users, book readers, mobile phone users, and users of other portable media in seven field sites (parks, plazas, and public markets) located in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Toronto. A paper based on this project is currently under review.
If you do not have access to the NM&S article but would like a copy, send me an email.
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