Day-to-day urban existence is increasingly mediated by digital technologies. The digital networks supporting this have increasingly become platforms of social feedback and interaction among users, leading to drastic changes in social networks. The penetration of such digital tools is particularly dense in urban environments creating digital-social networks that either remain confined within a platform or have a growing influence across platforms and beyond.
Digital networks are recognized as the key enabler for many emerging technologies, including those that expose individuals to one another’s behaviors, opinions, and feelings. At the same time, social networks are self- organizing systems that channel information and influence behavior.
The goals of this research cluster are threefold. First, to investigate questions regarding the formation, maintenance, and self-organization of digital-social networks. Second, to develop and pilot theoretically informed interventions targeting outcomes of sustainable living both from an environmental and a social perspective. Third, to study the expansion of such piloted interventions to larger-scale field implementations of new technologies.
PROJECTS
Social Media Platforms as Sensors for Investigating Urban Dynamics
This project focuses on utilizing traces of digital activity to develop methods for monitoring urban activity focusing on two key areas: urban group formation and evolution, and information propagation in digital networks.