Facebook as soft infrastructure: producing and performing community in a mixed tenure housing development

Abstract

Place-based community networks provide a resource that can be drawn on to protect and promote the wellbeing of residents. We investigate the role of social networking sites (SNSs) in community formation in a new master-planned, mixed tenure, affordable housing estate in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Waimahia Inlet was developed by a consortium of Māori organizations and community housing providers. Community formation was an explicit developer goal with public spaces to encourage face-to-face interaction designed into the development and social infrastructure nurtured on site. New residents were invited to join a closed Facebook group, created and moderated by a residents’ association set up by the developer. In-depth interviews with 38 residents between 2017/18 revealed synergies between residents’ use of online and offline interactional spaces for producing and performing an engaged and supportive community. Neighbourhood networks contributed to strengthened attachment to place and sense of security by residents.

Keywords:

• Community housing
• social networking sites
• social media
• Facebook
• community formation
• New Zealand

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Pacific people is a term describing migrants to New Zealand from the Pacific region and their descendants.

2 Shared equity broadly denotes home ownership schemes where the purchasing household shares the equity of the property with a third-party, e.g., a community housing provider. Rent-to-buy or rent-to-own schemes allow households to afford to rent while paying down debts and becoming financial able to afford a deposit for the house they live in.

3 Nvivo 11, QSR International. (2015). NVivo qualitative data analysis Software (Ver. 11 ed.) QSR International Pty Ltd.

4 Pseudonyms are used for all interview participants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Witten

Karen Witten is a Professor of Public Health and Associate Director of SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, Massey University.

Robin Kearns

Robin Kearns is a Professor of Geography at the School of Environment, University of Auckland.

Simon Opit

Simon Opit is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, Massey University.

Emma Fergusson

Emma Fergusson was formerly an academic in the Planning Programme at Massey University.