The Symbolic Trajectories of Urban Neighborhoods through the Lens of Social Media

Keywords: social media, The Netherlands, urban neighborhoods, representation, placemaking
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 9

Abstract

Uneven capital investment and power imbalances culminate in status differentiation in urban areas. Some neighborhoods are able to "upgrade" symbolically, while others remain stigmatized and marginalized. Digitization impacts how such symbolic trajectories are shaped, and in particular, neighborhoods rise and decline with the symbolic investments made in them through digital channels such as social media. What room for maneuver do resident initiatives seeking to shape the image of their neighborhood using digital platforms have? How can cooperatives, community centers and individual symbolic entrepreneurs leverage social media and other digital technologies for bottom-up platform placemaking? Operationalizing a framework initially developed through mixed-methods (qualitative and computational) research centered on an economically-deprived neighborhood in The Hague, we employ semi-supervised machine learning techniques to study digital representations of ten urban neighborhoods in South Holland circulating on Twitter and Instagram. Taking a longitudinal and comparative perspective, we gauge the degree to which different kinds of representations (including injurious and promotional ones) are produced, circulated and amplified on social media. We map who is producing what kinds of representations and whose representations get the most traction. We also relate these various kinds of representations to material changes in the neighborhoods, including indicators of capital flows. By analyzing and visualizing symbolic trajectories over time, we seek to gain insight into opportunities for resident initiatives -- as well as pitfalls of a mode of placemaking dependent on a platform ecology that is often hostile to anyone and anything that is not aligned with status aspiration and dominant aesthetics.