Our Exhibition

People Involved

Desegregating Network Neighbourhoods

Political polarization is increasingly recognized as the Internet’s main threat against democratic processes: information theorists have linked the Internet’s decentralized structure to the asymmetric polarization of political groups; cultural researchers have revealed how polarization facilitates fake news circulation; and political scientists have shown how it excludes communities from partaking in political dialogues. Platforms might not deliberately support polarization, but sociologists have shown how homophily (the assumption that people prefer to associate with others who are similar), as a design principle for networks, heightens political sorting through the creation of online “echo chambers”. As online communities become more homogeneous, the Internet’s impact on them becomes more disparate; platforms amplify gender and racial biases, and exacerbate social and economic inequalities.

→ Learn about our exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Our Exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

“With an unabashed embrace of the empirical, contributors assert something about how space is experienced.” – Akiva Blander 

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People Involved

At SFU

Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media

A PhD student with expertise in data analysis.

SFU Professor of Communication, who studies network conflict

Around the World

PhD Student, analyzing neighbourhood relations

Whose work on the historical roots of homophily with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is already published and featured in the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennale

Professor of Sociology of Organisation and Culture

Professor at Ryerson University and the Director of Catalyst, working with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun to understand the current impact of homophily and weak ties through a political-economy analysis of ‘portal-credentials’ 

Whose work on discriminating algorithims with Dr. Chun is already published in Pattern Discrimination (2019)

Analysis of the impact of legal infrastructures and regulation on polarization

Analysis of the impact of legal infrastructures and regulation on polarization

Network modelling expert

Whose expertise is in indigenous data sovereignty and networks

Whose expertise is in indigenous data sovereignty and networks

Has research expertise on “data visceralization”

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