Community Networks: From Local to Global, and Participation to Deliberation

Community networks are meant to address shared ‘public affairs’ at regional level. But communities engaged in developing them are often unable to have their voice heard in related matters. To address this question as well as inadequate and marginalized citizen engagement society-wide; authors undertook a few research and develpment projects and online deliberations. To create awareness authors focused on three major protest communities in Italy. It revealed that they must move beyond the community network model and perspective in two ways -firstly, communities must work with and integrate local and non-local perspectives and secondly, there needs to be more purposive modes of communication which can be supported through informed development and use of technology. Authors consider this approach as essential in an ongoing process, building on their experiences with community networks to help develop and define the requirements for useful online capabilities as they link local and non-local communities in a sustained way that manifests civic intelligence.