Communities of support

Abstract

Support groups play an essential role in the ongoing care of health sufferers, and have proved their value over the years. However, support groups have also proved to be somewhat unstable, often relying on the involvement of one particular person. Similarly, traditional face-to-face have necessarily been geographically constrained and meet only occasionally, at specific times and in specific places. All of these factors restrict the reach of these groups. The Internet has the power to alleviate many of these restrictions; for instance members can be online at any time, from (more or less) anywhere. Online communities bring their own set of problems. For instance, there is no guarantee that all members will be in the same time zone, so discussions can become very disjointed. Also, there is no way to identify members’ cultural origins, allowing the possibility for members to accidentally give or take offence. This paper introduces the concept of a “Community of Support” (COS). In many ways a COS is very similar to a “Community of Practice” (COP). This paper uses Actor Network Theory as a lens to compare face-to-face COS with their virtual, online counterparts. The roles of the focal actor and non-human actors (actants) are examined, and particular attention is paid to the final “moment of translation”, that of “mobilization”, and how it influences the activity and sustainability of the community. The conclusion drawn is that COS are indeed viable, stable actor networks, but that more work needs to be done in the area of Internet-based COS.