THE DIGITAL AGE, THE CYBORG AND THE CITY

Abstract

Urban sociological research examines the built environment, as well as the social
and cultural happenings of the urban realm, exploring how structure and community affect society
to make recommendations for planners and policy makers. Typically, urban sociologists have
studied the material world. However, the presence of virtual worlds is an increasingly large
phenomenon that must be investigated, as the role of community in virtual worlds reflects,
contests and transcends established theories about community in urban sociology. This paper
explores the history of the built environment from pastoralism, through the early development of
cities, suburban sprawl, and finally, a small ethnography of the virtual world, Second Life. The
findings of which highlight an interesting pattern of escapism that spans well over one hundred
years. Virtual worlds like Second Life, can work as an efficient and inexpensive tool in
researching and developing new methods of planning and design. Although Second Life provides
a medium to explore renewed design of urban and rural form, further exploration and
understanding of what features of renewed design society is in search of must also take place.
KEYWORDS: Virtual worlds; urban sociology; community; phenomenology.