Following this line of arguments sociologists such as Barry Wellman have argued that the concept of community must be rethought to emphasize the non-neighbourhood basis of personal ties. In contemporary times communities consist of networks that are not spatially distinct but are dispersed across the metropolis and the country.

Therefore, it is a ‘community without a locality’ and it is technology that has contributed to the rise of this new community—cell phones, blackberry, e-mail, that is, new modes of electronic telecommunications, that has contributed to the ability of the people to form networks without regard for spatial locations. Therefore, both the concepts of community and neighbourhood need to be redefined. For network analysis it is not spatial location but other factors such as class, education, gender and race that are more important in explaining urban behaviour. Because of technology now thousand people are not required in a particular city to form a group but we need the technology which can bring together thousand interested people across space.

The theorists of socio-spatial perspective have criticized the network analysts for analyzing the role of space only in a very specific way and therefore missing the important influences of the built environment. The socio-spatial perspective which we are going to discuss in the next lecture conceives the influence of space in a broader, more general way while acknowledging the central role played by social factors.