In his 1983 book, “Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism,” Anderson maintained that nations are communities that are “imagined” in the sense that all members do not – and will not – ever know all of the other members. Binenkorb Emeritus Professor of International Studies, taught at Cornell from 1967 to 2002.
Thus, the imagined community is a valuable set of beliefs and practices that underlie and bolster the effective meaning and functioning of the virtual communities.Benedict Anderson, a Cornell professor emeritus in government who wrote “Imagined Communities,” the book that set the pace for the academic study of nationalism, died Dec. In spite of its limitations, the perspectives offered by this concept are still useful for understanding the nature of online communities. In order to illustrate these aspects, I gave a brief example by analysing a Romanian virtual community, using the triad common language – temporality – high centers. The dynamic of a virtual community contains the tension amongst these layers and the degree of its imagined side depends on multiple factors. In my opinion, the virtual community is imagined as a multi-layered experience (technological, conversational, relational etc.). Moreover, the set of values and inner presuppositions that guide the members are important bricks in the construction of community. The impossibility to know in person all the members of a big community is just one factor that determines its imagined face.
In this respect, my article pointed out some suggestive characteristics of virtual communities, explaining why the imagined community is a valuable subject for the theorists of new media. The expression “imagined community” has known a remarkable proliferation, a situation that led to both the formation of a research direction and to the perpetuation of a cliché. The reception of Benedict Anderson’s ideas was very fruitful in many disciplines, and his work provided key concepts that can now throw a clarifying light in some blurry matters.
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