Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent dec... more Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity within official boundaries may lead to informational distortion; disadvantaged areas are denied benefits solely because of location. Third, designations may generate negative reputations for targeted areas or extend existing stigma to new areas. To examine these processes, the authors study Toronto's Priority Area Program (2006-2013). Difference-indifference models show significant negative effects of the designation on rent, home value, and building permits. The authors provide evidence of informational distortion through income distribution analysis. An analysis of policy documents, newspaper reports, and secondary literature illustrates the stigmatizing aspects that local community members and observers interpreted about the designation.
This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective represen... more This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective representations of a city and its neighbourhoods. Basing analysis on social media data such as Yelp is a challenging task because review data is highly sparse and direct analysis may fail to uncover hidden trends. To this end, we propose a deep autoencoder approach for embedding the language of neighbourhood-based business reviews into a reduced dimensional space that facilitates similarity comparison of neighbourhoods and their change over time. Our model improves performance in distinguishing real and fake neighbourhood descriptions derived from real reviews , increasing performance in the task from an average accuracy of 0.46 to 0.77. This improvement in performance indicates that this novel application of embedded language analysis permits us to uncover comparative trends in neighbourhood change through the lens of their venues' reviews, providing a computational methodology for reading a city through its neighbourhoods. The resulting toolkit makes it possible to examine a city's current sociological trends in terms of its neighbourhoods' collective identities.
The 2019 Canadian Sociological Association Conference (CONGRESS 2019), 2019
Contemporary urban planning, sociological, and political economy studies investigate the design a... more Contemporary urban planning, sociological, and political economy studies investigate the design and development of public places, focusing on processes of neoliberal urban regeneration and gentrification or on attracting private investment capital for the development and management of urban public spaces. Yet very little attention has been given to the notion of identity of these public places, and how it is formed and shaped over time. The population in Toronto’s downtown area is growing at four times the rate of the City of Toronto. While more residents are using its public spaces as their shared backyard, the downtown area has one of the lowest rates of parkland per person in the city. In the absence of conventional urban spaces to develop public places, downtown Toronto is witnessing a growing interest from various public and private entities that seek to find and finance bold, innovative, and radical ideas to develop public places in the unlikeliest locations. Yet how do these newly developed public spaces become public places? This case study analyzes the overlapping processes and converging forces that formed and shaped the identity of Sugar Beach Park and advances a more comprehensive sociological understanding of downtown Toronto’s newly developed public places.
The 2019 Canadian Sociological Association Conference (CONGRESS 2019), 2019
We often view cities as a composition of their neighbourhoods, each with their own history and ch... more We often view cities as a composition of their neighbourhoods, each with their own history and characteristics. But can we establish where neighbourhoods end and begin in a way which reflects their changing compositions? While there are abundant studies representing cities in terms of their neighbourhoods, the majority rely on cultural products – novels, photographs, etc. – which are difficult to observe in a systematic way. Using Toronto as a case study, we expand previous work of social media analysis to uncover the distinct boundaries within a “city of neighbourhoods”. Via methods focusing on text and network analyses, we explore how the language used to review Toronto’s businesses changes over time and space. From this we identify how neighbourhoods are represented, and how neighbourhoods change over time. Using a dataset of Yelp reviews spanning 2006-2018, we analyze neighbourhood representation on three levels: (1) business characteristics, (2) user reviews; and (3) network of reviewers, generated by noting where users frequently co-appear in a business’ reviews. Our findings suggest that big-data analysis offers a promising avenue for neighbourhood analysis, and that each of the three levels help significantly to organically understand neighbourhood boundaries.
The XIX International Sociological Association Congress of Sociology, 2018
The historical functions of urban public spaces are to create a physical link between buildings a... more The historical functions of urban public spaces are to create a physical link between buildings and land use, and to sustain the economic, administrative, and transportation functions of a city. They also link people, facilitating social interactions and communication, binding the social order of local communities, by creating a realm in which the greatest amount of human contact takes place. They are an important component of the social communication system that brings people together to discuss important aspects of their lives and form relationships.
However, with the emergence of internet technologies, the lines between the physical and digital worlds are constantly being crossed, the traditional qualities of public spaces are being redefined, and the very ways in which we make sense of the surrounding world, and attach value to our environment, is modified. As such, understanding of the social life of urban public spaces needs to take into account not only the spatial, but also the a-spatial processes brought about by internet technologies.
The purpose of this project is to examine this synergetic relation between urban public spaces, social interactions, and internet technologies, to ascertain the ways in which internet technologies help redefine the traditional qualities of urban public spaces and transform the ways in which people experience them. Ethnographic methods are being used along video-recordings and content analysis of images posted on Google and other social media sites.
Most of the Eastern European countries, formerly members of the Communist Bloc, are currently fac... more Most of the Eastern European countries, formerly members of the Communist Bloc, are currently faced with below replacement fertility rate and the demographic implications are far-reaching. Yet, demographers have yet to identify a comprehensive account for it. In Romania, for example, some demographers have attempted to explain the fertility decline through various social, economic, demographic, and evolutionary conditions. Others have argued that it is the product of a unique sociohistorical experience created by the communist government’s pro-natalist policy, which failed to accomplish its purpose and ultimately resulted in a decreased fertility rate. Drawing on both demographic theories and population policies, this paper analyzes Romanian fertility rate patterns between 1930 and 1989, in an attempt to provide a more holistic explanation for the steep decline in fertility. The main argument is that no theory or population policy alone is sufficient to explain the complex decline in fertility in Romania, either during or post-communist era.
In North America, research studies have extensively examined homelessness and its negative impact... more In North America, research studies have extensively examined homelessness and its negative impact on health. Some have proposed strategic directions for reducing health disparities and promoting equity for the homeless population. Others have documented the segregation of the homeless population through city zoning and government policies designed to control and concentrate. However, to date, no studies have made a distinct connection between homelessness, as a form of segregation, and the health inequalities deriving from it. The purpose of this paper is to frame some of the main health issues associated with the socio-spatial segregation of homeless persons. The main finding is that homelessness is a drastic form of segregation and the health of homeless people in North America is directly impacted by their socio-spatial segregation from the mainstream population and the lack of access to healthcare that has become prevalent in recent years.
Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent dec... more Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity within official boundaries may lead to informational distortion; disadvantaged areas are denied benefits solely because of location. Third, designations may generate negative reputations for targeted areas or extend existing stigma to new areas. To examine these processes, the authors study Toronto's Priority Area Program (2006-2013). Difference-indifference models show significant negative effects of the designation on rent, home value, and building permits. The authors provide evidence of informational distortion through income distribution analysis. An analysis of policy documents, newspaper reports, and secondary literature illustrates the stigmatizing aspects that local community members and observers interpreted about the designation.
This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective represen... more This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective representations of a city and its neighbourhoods. Basing analysis on social media data such as Yelp is a challenging task because review data is highly sparse and direct analysis may fail to uncover hidden trends. To this end, we propose a deep autoencoder approach for embedding the language of neighbourhood-based business reviews into a reduced dimensional space that facilitates similarity comparison of neighbourhoods and their change over time. Our model improves performance in distinguishing real and fake neighbourhood descriptions derived from real reviews , increasing performance in the task from an average accuracy of 0.46 to 0.77. This improvement in performance indicates that this novel application of embedded language analysis permits us to uncover comparative trends in neighbourhood change through the lens of their venues' reviews, providing a computational methodology for reading a city through its neighbourhoods. The resulting toolkit makes it possible to examine a city's current sociological trends in terms of its neighbourhoods' collective identities.
Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent dec... more Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity within official boundaries may lead to informational distortion; disadvantaged areas are denied benefits solely because of location. Third, designations may generate negative reputations for targeted areas or extend existing stigma to new areas. To examine these processes, the authors study Toronto's Priority Area Program (2006-2013). Difference-indifference models show significant negative effects of the designation on rent, home value, and building permits. The authors provide evidence of informational distortion through income distribution analysis. An analysis of policy documents, newspaper reports, and secondary literature illustrates the stigmatizing aspects that local community members and observers interpreted about the designation.
This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective represen... more This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective representations of a city and its neighbourhoods. Basing analysis on social media data such as Yelp is a challenging task because review data is highly sparse and direct analysis may fail to uncover hidden trends. To this end, we propose a deep autoencoder approach for embedding the language of neighbourhood-based business reviews into a reduced dimensional space that facilitates similarity comparison of neighbourhoods and their change over time. Our model improves performance in distinguishing real and fake neighbourhood descriptions derived from real reviews , increasing performance in the task from an average accuracy of 0.46 to 0.77. This improvement in performance indicates that this novel application of embedded language analysis permits us to uncover comparative trends in neighbourhood change through the lens of their venues' reviews, providing a computational methodology for reading a city through its neighbourhoods. The resulting toolkit makes it possible to examine a city's current sociological trends in terms of its neighbourhoods' collective identities.
The 2019 Canadian Sociological Association Conference (CONGRESS 2019), 2019
Contemporary urban planning, sociological, and political economy studies investigate the design a... more Contemporary urban planning, sociological, and political economy studies investigate the design and development of public places, focusing on processes of neoliberal urban regeneration and gentrification or on attracting private investment capital for the development and management of urban public spaces. Yet very little attention has been given to the notion of identity of these public places, and how it is formed and shaped over time. The population in Toronto’s downtown area is growing at four times the rate of the City of Toronto. While more residents are using its public spaces as their shared backyard, the downtown area has one of the lowest rates of parkland per person in the city. In the absence of conventional urban spaces to develop public places, downtown Toronto is witnessing a growing interest from various public and private entities that seek to find and finance bold, innovative, and radical ideas to develop public places in the unlikeliest locations. Yet how do these newly developed public spaces become public places? This case study analyzes the overlapping processes and converging forces that formed and shaped the identity of Sugar Beach Park and advances a more comprehensive sociological understanding of downtown Toronto’s newly developed public places.
The 2019 Canadian Sociological Association Conference (CONGRESS 2019), 2019
We often view cities as a composition of their neighbourhoods, each with their own history and ch... more We often view cities as a composition of their neighbourhoods, each with their own history and characteristics. But can we establish where neighbourhoods end and begin in a way which reflects their changing compositions? While there are abundant studies representing cities in terms of their neighbourhoods, the majority rely on cultural products – novels, photographs, etc. – which are difficult to observe in a systematic way. Using Toronto as a case study, we expand previous work of social media analysis to uncover the distinct boundaries within a “city of neighbourhoods”. Via methods focusing on text and network analyses, we explore how the language used to review Toronto’s businesses changes over time and space. From this we identify how neighbourhoods are represented, and how neighbourhoods change over time. Using a dataset of Yelp reviews spanning 2006-2018, we analyze neighbourhood representation on three levels: (1) business characteristics, (2) user reviews; and (3) network of reviewers, generated by noting where users frequently co-appear in a business’ reviews. Our findings suggest that big-data analysis offers a promising avenue for neighbourhood analysis, and that each of the three levels help significantly to organically understand neighbourhood boundaries.
The XIX International Sociological Association Congress of Sociology, 2018
The historical functions of urban public spaces are to create a physical link between buildings a... more The historical functions of urban public spaces are to create a physical link between buildings and land use, and to sustain the economic, administrative, and transportation functions of a city. They also link people, facilitating social interactions and communication, binding the social order of local communities, by creating a realm in which the greatest amount of human contact takes place. They are an important component of the social communication system that brings people together to discuss important aspects of their lives and form relationships.
However, with the emergence of internet technologies, the lines between the physical and digital worlds are constantly being crossed, the traditional qualities of public spaces are being redefined, and the very ways in which we make sense of the surrounding world, and attach value to our environment, is modified. As such, understanding of the social life of urban public spaces needs to take into account not only the spatial, but also the a-spatial processes brought about by internet technologies.
The purpose of this project is to examine this synergetic relation between urban public spaces, social interactions, and internet technologies, to ascertain the ways in which internet technologies help redefine the traditional qualities of urban public spaces and transform the ways in which people experience them. Ethnographic methods are being used along video-recordings and content analysis of images posted on Google and other social media sites.
Most of the Eastern European countries, formerly members of the Communist Bloc, are currently fac... more Most of the Eastern European countries, formerly members of the Communist Bloc, are currently faced with below replacement fertility rate and the demographic implications are far-reaching. Yet, demographers have yet to identify a comprehensive account for it. In Romania, for example, some demographers have attempted to explain the fertility decline through various social, economic, demographic, and evolutionary conditions. Others have argued that it is the product of a unique sociohistorical experience created by the communist government’s pro-natalist policy, which failed to accomplish its purpose and ultimately resulted in a decreased fertility rate. Drawing on both demographic theories and population policies, this paper analyzes Romanian fertility rate patterns between 1930 and 1989, in an attempt to provide a more holistic explanation for the steep decline in fertility. The main argument is that no theory or population policy alone is sufficient to explain the complex decline in fertility in Romania, either during or post-communist era.
In North America, research studies have extensively examined homelessness and its negative impact... more In North America, research studies have extensively examined homelessness and its negative impact on health. Some have proposed strategic directions for reducing health disparities and promoting equity for the homeless population. Others have documented the segregation of the homeless population through city zoning and government policies designed to control and concentrate. However, to date, no studies have made a distinct connection between homelessness, as a form of segregation, and the health inequalities deriving from it. The purpose of this paper is to frame some of the main health issues associated with the socio-spatial segregation of homeless persons. The main finding is that homelessness is a drastic form of segregation and the health of homeless people in North America is directly impacted by their socio-spatial segregation from the mainstream population and the lack of access to healthcare that has become prevalent in recent years.
Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent dec... more Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity within official boundaries may lead to informational distortion; disadvantaged areas are denied benefits solely because of location. Third, designations may generate negative reputations for targeted areas or extend existing stigma to new areas. To examine these processes, the authors study Toronto's Priority Area Program (2006-2013). Difference-indifference models show significant negative effects of the designation on rent, home value, and building permits. The authors provide evidence of informational distortion through income distribution analysis. An analysis of policy documents, newspaper reports, and secondary literature illustrates the stigmatizing aspects that local community members and observers interpreted about the designation.
This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective represen... more This paper develops novel methods for using Yelp reviews as a window into the collective representations of a city and its neighbourhoods. Basing analysis on social media data such as Yelp is a challenging task because review data is highly sparse and direct analysis may fail to uncover hidden trends. To this end, we propose a deep autoencoder approach for embedding the language of neighbourhood-based business reviews into a reduced dimensional space that facilitates similarity comparison of neighbourhoods and their change over time. Our model improves performance in distinguishing real and fake neighbourhood descriptions derived from real reviews , increasing performance in the task from an average accuracy of 0.46 to 0.77. This improvement in performance indicates that this novel application of embedded language analysis permits us to uncover comparative trends in neighbourhood change through the lens of their venues' reviews, providing a computational methodology for reading a city through its neighbourhoods. The resulting toolkit makes it possible to examine a city's current sociological trends in terms of its neighbourhoods' collective identities.
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Papers by Olimpia Bidian
However, with the emergence of internet technologies, the lines between the physical and digital worlds are constantly being crossed, the traditional qualities of public spaces are being redefined, and the very ways in which we make sense of the surrounding world, and attach value to our environment, is modified. As such, understanding of the social life of urban public spaces needs to take into account not only the spatial, but also the a-spatial processes brought about by internet technologies.
The purpose of this project is to examine this synergetic relation between urban public spaces, social interactions, and internet technologies, to ascertain the ways in which internet technologies help redefine the traditional qualities of urban public spaces and transform the ways in which people experience them. Ethnographic methods are being used along video-recordings and content analysis of images posted on Google and other social media sites.
Articles by Olimpia Bidian
However, with the emergence of internet technologies, the lines between the physical and digital worlds are constantly being crossed, the traditional qualities of public spaces are being redefined, and the very ways in which we make sense of the surrounding world, and attach value to our environment, is modified. As such, understanding of the social life of urban public spaces needs to take into account not only the spatial, but also the a-spatial processes brought about by internet technologies.
The purpose of this project is to examine this synergetic relation between urban public spaces, social interactions, and internet technologies, to ascertain the ways in which internet technologies help redefine the traditional qualities of urban public spaces and transform the ways in which people experience them. Ethnographic methods are being used along video-recordings and content analysis of images posted on Google and other social media sites.