Super Controllers in Online Spaces: Influencing Online Place Management

• In Event: Communities and Place: Super Controllers, Risk Terrain Models, and Crime

Abstract

Online spaces operate as managed places, where individuals or entities known as place managers organize space, regulate conduct, control access, and acquire resources. Through these actions, online place managers can suppress or stimulate crime. In physical spaces, when place managers are not acting to suppress crime, external influences are often required to address crime and disorder. Super controllers—individuals, groups, or entities with the authority to exert pressure on place managers to act—play a critical role in this process. Building on the framework established by Rana Sampson, John Eck and Jessica Dunham, this paper examines the presence of super controllers in online spaces and explores new forms specific to online environments. By identifying online super controllers, this research highlights opportunities to adapt traditional place management strategies for crime prevention in online spaces.

Authors

• Ivana Zdjelar, Simon Fraser University

• Shannon J. Linning, Simon Fraser University