Месната заедница е онлајн: трансформација на традиционални форми на самоуправа во дигиталната ера
The Local Community is Online: Transformation of Traditional Forms of Self-Governance in the Digital Era

Summary/Abstract: Mesna zaednica, or local community, is the smallest unit of local self governance in North Macedonia. In many ways, the form of self-governance in local communities has continued through varied political and administrative systems, regulated through customary law. At present, after mass migration towards urban areas has significantly changed rural demographics, self-governing local communities continue to function through the use of social media networks, notably Facebook. Creating an online presence on Facebook allows a local community to transfer historically common ways of local participation to the digital sphere: enabling public discussion and decision-making, calling villagers to participate in collective action, and maintaining existing social ties with family and neighbors. By examining the example of local communities in the digital sphere, this paper argues that present day ethnological research should not tend to separate the ‘digital’ from ‘real life’, considering the frequent usage of internet tools by inhabitants and the manifestation of social life in digital spaces.

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