E-research without discussion doesn't help

Another piece of research on E-neighbourhoods hightlights some of the key issues circulating over the past few years:

To what extent does the global reach of the Internet and the World Wide Web render neighbourhood and neighbours irrelevant?
Alternatively does this technology foster a re-assertion of neighbourhood in terms of local ties and information or the provision of services and democratic accountability - in the way that is being argued for Virtual Cities?
Are there information rich and information poor neighbourhoods, and can information technology itself be used to bridge the gap and overcome social exclusion in a way assumed by the UK Government's 'Wired Communities' initiative?
Can IT provide a focus (via message boards etc) for neighbourhood activities? To what extent does the information available on the Internet affect the reputation of different neighbourhoods?
.... and so on towards "In sum this paper explores the articulations between neighbourhood functions and the various forms of information technology, the e-neighbourhood as "virtual" and "real".

I'm all agog, but unfortunately it turns out to be Yet Another Piece of Desk Research which doesn't deliver many answers, or - as far as I can see - any opportunity for those who may have them to join in.

The authors, Gary Bridge and Susy Giullari, of the Centre for Neighbourhood Research conclude: "The e literature as it relates to neighbourhoods is still strongly informed by utopian or dystopian visions of the effects on ICT on cities in general and neighbourhoods more specifically. Many of the arguments are based on literature reviews and assertions about the impacts of ICT.
"A strong conceptual point arising from the review is that it is not an either/or of ‘virtual’ ties and activities in cyber-neighbourhoods or real ties and activities in ‘real’ neighbourhoods but the way that the two are articulated that matters. The evidence base for the effects of ICT on neighbourhoods is growing but still quite small. This is in part because the technical developments themselves and the policy interventions to cope with them are all relatively recent."
That seems a pretty honest reflection to me of the state of play, but doesn't really justify the summary statement: "
This narrative review assesses the impact of information technology on the functioning and role of residential neighbourhoods". It don't think it does. It reports oldish stuff people have written, mostly not in the front line. Maybe researchers suffer, like authors, from the desire of their publishers to puff heavily.
The paper is certainly useful in pulling together lots of published material, but I fear that it will just get fed into the academic and policy sausage machine leading to more and more propositions build on the what was going on a few years ago.
I think that if you asked people working in 'e-neighbourhoods' they would say that in many case what they thought would work out hasn't, and other unforseens have bubbled up.
I have a suspicion that desk research divorced from discussion may be a bad idea in fast-moving fields. I like the way that Think Tanks like Demos, and the IPPR Manifestor for a Digital Britain for example, mix events, production of papers, and the opportunity to comment on their blogs. One way in which technology can help bridge the academic-policy-practitioner divides.... if the academics will join in.
Am I being terribly unfair? Comments below, please:-)

Comments

[ian]

I'm putting a bid together for a project which would focus on existing organisations in communities with the aim of helping them to look at how they might achieve their own objectives better by the use of ICT - web presence, email, general IT. The objective is not to give them access for its own sake but to do what any business should do and develop a 'business case'.