E-community-building in wiInf-central

Abstract

Our study examined WiInf-Central, the "virtual homeplace" of a student community at the University of Hamburg, focusing on the processes of social identity and community building. After a detailed description of WiInf-Central we review our theoretical approaches, based on Social Identity Theory and Communities of Practice, and then set out our research questions and design. Finally, we present and discuss our results, followed by some comments on the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.