Barry Wellman

Barry Wellman
FRSC
Born(1942-09-30)30 September 1942
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Died9 July 2024(2024-07-09) (aged 81)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
CitizenshipCanadian, American
Alma materLafayette College, Harvard University
Scientific career
FieldsSociological Theory, Social Network Analysis, Community, Technology and Society
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto
Doctoral advisorDudley C. Gordon, Charles Tilly, Harrison White
Doctoral studentsKeith Hampton, Caroline Haythornthwaite, Anabel Quan-Haase

Barry Wellman FRSC (30 September 1942 – 9 July 2024) was an American-Canadian sociologist and was the co-director of the Toronto-based international NetLab Network. His areas of research were community sociology, the Internet, human-computer interaction and social structure, as manifested in social networks in communities and organizations. His overarching interest was in the paradigm shift from group-centered relations to networked individualism. He has written or co-authored more than 300 articles, chapters, reports and books.[1] Wellman was a professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto for 46 years, from 1967 to 2013, including a five-year stint as S.D. Clark Professor.

Among the concepts Wellman has published are: "network of networks" and "the network city" (both with Paul Craven),[2] "the community question",[3] "computer networks as social networks",[4] "connected lives" and[5] the "immanent Internet" (both with Bernie Hogan),[6] "media-multiplexity" (with Caroline Haythornthwaite),[7] "networked individualism" and "networked society",[8] "personal community" and "personal network"[9] and three with Anabel Quan-Haase: "hyperconnectivity", "local virtuality" and "virtual locality".[10]

Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman were co-authors of the 2012 prize-winning Networked: The New Social Operating System (MIT Press).[11][12] Wellman is also the editor of three books, and the author of more than 500 articles, often written with students.[13]

Wellman received career achievement awards from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, the International Network for Social Network Analysis, the International Communication Association, the GRAND Network of Centres of Excellence, and two sections of the American Sociological Association: Community and Urban Sociology; Communication and Information Technologies.[14] He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) in 2007.[15][16] In 2012, Wellman was identified as having the highest h-index (of citations) of all Canadian sociologists.[17] Wellman was a faculty member at the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto for 46 years, from 1967 to 2013. Since July 2013, he co-directed the NetLab Network. Wellman was honoured with the Lim Chong Yah[18] Visiting Professorship of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore in January–February 2015.[19]

Wellman died after a long illness on 9 July 2024, at the age of 81.[20]

  1. ^ "Barry Wellman's Vitae". Archived from the original on 2 May 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2006.
  2. ^ Craven, Paul; Wellman, Barry (1973). "The Network City". Sociological Inquiry. 43 (3–4): 57–88. doi:10.1111/j.1475-682X.1973.tb00003.x.
  3. ^ Wellman, Barry (1979). "The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers" (PDF). American Journal of Sociology. 84 (5): 1201–31. doi:10.1086/226906. S2CID 143520371. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 December 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2009. Claude Fischer, "Inventing the Social Network," Boston Review, December 19, 2013
  4. ^ Barry Wellman, "Computer Networks as Social Networks." Science 293 (14 September 2001): 2031-34.
  5. ^ Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan, with Kristen Berg, Jeffrey Boase, Juan-Antonio Carrasco, Rochelle Côté, Jennifer Kayahara, Tracy L.M. Kennedy and Phouc Tran. "Connected Lives: The Project" Pp. 157-211 in Networked Neighbourhoods: The Online Community in Context, edited by Patrick Purcell. Guildford, UK: Springer, 2006.
  6. ^ Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan (2004). "The Immanent Internet." Pp. 54-80 in Netting Citizens: Exploring Citizenship in a Digital Age, edited by Johnston McKay. Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press.
  7. ^ Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry Wellman, "Work, Friendship and Media Use for Information Exchange in a Networked Organization." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 49, 12 (Oct. 1998): 1101-1114
  8. ^ Barry Wellman, "Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Networked Individualism." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25,2 (June 2001): 227-52
  9. ^ Barry Wellman, "The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers." American Journal of Sociology 84 (March 1979): 1201-31.
  10. ^ Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman, "Networks of Distance and Media: A Case Study of a High Tech Firm." Trust and Communities conference, Bielefeld, Germany, July 2003; Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman. 2004. "Local Virtuality in a High-Tech Networked Organization." Anaylse & Kritik 26 (special issue 1): 241-57 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1; Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman, "How Computer-Mediated Hyperconnectivity and Local Virtuality Foster Social Networks of Information and Coordination in a Community of Practice." International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, Redondo Beach, California, February 2005.; Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman. "Hyperconnected Net Work: Computer-Mediated Community in a High-Tech Organization." Pp. 281-333 in The Firm as a Collaborative Community: Reconstructing Trust in the Knowledge Economy, edited by Charles Heckscher and Paul Adler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006
  11. ^ Ross Slutsky and Doug Bernard (14 June 2012). "The Web's "Triple Revolution" « Digital Frontiers". Voice of America. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  12. ^ "Networked: The New Social Operating System Blog". PEW Internet & American Life Project. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.; "2012 PROSE Awards Complete List of Winners," Association of American Publishers, February 2013 "The Association of American Publishers". Archived from the original on 4 June 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  13. ^ "Welcome". Harzing.com.
  14. ^ "Canadian Digital Media Pioneer Awards | GRAND NCE". Archived from the original on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  15. ^ "Barry Wellman". University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  16. ^ "RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada : Membership". www.rsc.ca. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  17. ^ Toronto Globe and Mail, 27 March 2012, pp. B8-B9.
  18. ^ "Lim Chong Yah | Infopedia".
  19. ^ "Communications & New Media". Archived from the original on 27 January 2011.
  20. ^ "Barry Wellman". Legacy. Retrieved 28 July 2024.