A research study has claimed that by using data from social media it can look into a neighbourhoods future and predict if it will go through the process of gentrification.
The study shows that an influx of diverse and more affluent visitors to a neighbourhood brought the effects of gentrification. In contrast to this, because of isolation tightly-knit communities that are affluent remain affluent and communities that are poor remain poor.
“We found that the most socially cohesive and homogenous areas tend to be either very wealthy or very poor, but neighbourhoods with both high social diversity and high deprivation are the ones which are currently undergoing processes of gentrification.”
No shit Sherlock
The Cambridge researchers found that the London boroughs with enough of that special formulation to tip the social diversity barometer into the red-hot gentrification zone was Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Lambeth.
Brent then is not quite there yet and the majority of which is in the tightly-knit / homogenous category thus lacking the social diversity of London’s other gentrification breadwinners.
What is social diversity?
The study defined social diversity using these four indicators:
Brokerage
The ability of a place to connect people who are otherwise disconnected.
Serendipity
Is the extent to which a place can induce chance encounters between its visitors.
Entropy
Is the extent to which a place is diverse with respect to visits.
Homogeneity
Is the extent to which the visitors to a place are homogenous in their characteristics.
What is gentrification?
It is the effects of economic growth, displacement of existing residents and businesses caused by affluent groups of people settling in deprived areas.
Look into their crystal ball, Predicting gentrification through social networking data
Image credit https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMysticMeg and https://www.flickr.com/photos/56624456@N00/
