Lady and Tramp Nextdoor: Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities

Jul 8, 2022·
Dr. Waleed Iqbal
Dr. Waleed Iqbal
· 0 min read
Abstract
In recent years, assessing socioeconomic differences has become a significant concern for policymakers and scholars. Income disparity is one of the most often used metrics; it influences crime and public opinion. Although these patterns can be identified using official data, a critical question remains: can similar inequalities be observed in freely available Internet user activity? We analyse this with two questions: (i) How does a neighbourhood’s income influence the crime-discussion user sentiment? (ii) Can user-generated data accurately forecast a neighbourhood’s income? We collected 2.5M posts from 64,283 US neighbourhoods and 3,325 UK neighbourhoods on Nextdoor (Nov 2020 – Sep 2021), combined with official US/UK crime and income data. To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure online manifestations of social inequalities using location-based social network data.
Date
Jul 8, 2022 1:00 PM — 2:00 PM
Event
Location

Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK

events
Inequality Social Networks Nextdoor
Dr. Waleed Iqbal
Authors
Dr. Waleed Iqbal

I am Waleed Iqbal, an Assistant Professor in Data Science at Northeastern University, based at their London Campus.

I also hold positions of Teaching Fellow in Computer Science at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London and Associate Lecturer at Arden University London.

I received my PhD in Computer Science under the supervision of Dr. Ignacio Castro and Prof. Gareth Tyson in the Social Data Science (SDS) Lab, Networks Research Group at Queen Mary University of London.

My research interests are broadly in manifestation of socio-economic inequality in online user activity.

Previously, I worked at IHSAN Lab in Information Technology University Lahore, Pakistan, supervised by Prof. Dr. Junaid Qadir as a postgraduate thesis student, affiliated researcher, and teaching assistant.

Since September 2023, I am endorsed and recognised as UK Global Talent (Exceptional Promise) in the Research and Academic Category by the Royal Academy of Engineering UK and granted Global Talent Visa by the Government of the United Kingdom.