Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)

Interethnic spaces

Stable networks in changing states? 165

8. Stable networks in changing states? Borders, networks and community management in the northern Adriatic Istrian Peninsula

Elke Kappus

Introduction

Social networks, defined in a very general manner as "communication channels’’ holding communities together “from within" (Deutsch 1966: 98), can be seen as the “skeleton” around which communities are shaped, structured and experienced. Hence, they are an interesting concept in the study of collective identities, complementary to Frederic Barth’s often quoted “ethnic boundaries” (Barth 1968), which define communities “from without”. In fact, these two concepts seem to be intrinsically intertwined and it is hard to imagine how group boundaries could change without changing networks, how new social networks could avoid drawing new