The Death of Distance Revisited: Cyberplace, Physical and Relational Proximities

Can scholarly pirate libraries bridge the knowledge access gap? An empirical study on the structural conditions of book piracy in global and European academia

“…The analysis of spatial autocorrelation reveals if shadow library usage is geographically clustered, for example, because underlying socioconomic activities are also clustered [62], or because user communities are clustered (for linguistic reasons, or because the knowledge about shadow libraries dissipates in close-knit trust networks). The ability to examine spatial autocorrelation is an important check on the robustness of our methodology.…”

Online Social Networks, Location, and the Dual Effect of Distance from the Centre

“…However, empirical evidence has repeatedly shown that physical place and distance have a determining power in online communities (Liben‐Nowell et al . ) and internet infrastructure (D'Ignazio and Giovanetti ; Tranos & Nijkamp ).…”

“…For example, Hayes () argues that the internet cannot exist independently of conventional geography because no bit can proceed via the net without passing through kilometres of wires and optical fibres or tons of computer hardware, which are all in physical space indeed. Furthermore, Tranos and Nijkamp () argue that although the internet has lowered the costs of communication, establishing a link to distant places has higher costs than does linking to proximate places. Thus, physical distance has a diminishing effect on the internet's infrastructure.…”

“…More recently, the concept of cyberplace has been used to depict internet‐mediated communication, underlying the importance of spatial base and the diminishing role of distance in internet infrastructure (Devriendt et al . ; Tranos & Nijkamp ). However, further efforts are needed to unveil the spatial dimension of the offline‐online interrelatedness, and OSNs provide excellent data sources for analysing this issue.…”

Cyber Cities: Social Media as a Tool for Understanding Cities

“…Nijkamp 2013). The role of geography is also prominently present in the 'death of distance' hypothesis, in which the assumption is advocated that in a digital world geography hardly matters (see for a critical reviewTranos and Nijkamp 2013).In recent years, some researchers have pointed at an interesting paradoxical development: when both physical and virtual mobility increases (e.g., thanks to the internet), the sense of neighbourhoods and places we know is intensified (see e.g.Iannides and Zabel 2008;Krysan and Bader 2009;Blacksher and Lovasi 2011), most likely as a response to the need for self-identity in an open global world. From this perspective, digital information may be helpful in the search for social spaces where self-identity (including friendship, social entertainment etc.)…”