The increasingly interconnected urban environment is characterized by networks of transportation, social, and digital infrastructure that facilitate the connections of people, relationships, and information. Yet, prevailing discourses on urban connectivity often fail to account for the complex and sometimes conflicting functions such infrastructure provides for different demographics and connection types. The assumption that increased connections inherently foster growth neglects the potential for network infrastructure to encode inequality and exclusion. For instance, barricaded highways, railways, and airports that support regional passengers can replace local social infrastructure and impose physical barriers to local mobility flows. Many urban development projects also assume that spatial integration (e.g., overhead highways to surface boulevards or new urban design that connects transits and amenities) will necessarily amend social fabrics, exemplified by the rhetoric to “reconnect communities” in various highway removal projects.

Network Duality is a conceptual framework that critically conceptualizes, analyzes, and contests issues around urban infrastructure through a network lens. It acknowledges that such infrastructure---be it transport, social, or digital---can simultaneously be inclusive and exclusive, offering connectivity and access for certain populations, places, or types of flows, while marginalizing or restricting others. The duality emerges as diverse urban network systems interact with each other and with the physical built environment.

How can I learn more about Network Duality?

Network Duality is a new research theme that I am currently developing, so there are few examples online. Network Duality is not a “new” urban phenomenon, but rather, a new perspective to conceptualize, analyze, and contest issues around urban infrastructure. I also welcome a broad definition of the term “infrastructure” — it can be a piece of built environment, an organization, a practice, or a community of people!

Here are some relevant work:

• Liang’s PhD dissertation: Connectivity for whom and at what cost: contesting network infrastructure duality in urban planning (recommend to read Summary, Introduction, and Conclusion).
  • Case Study 1: Transforming Mobility Barriers to Connectivity: Examining the Impact of the AeroATL Greenway Plan in Reconnecting Communities around Aerotropolis Atlanta.
  • Case Study 2: A Network Lens on Social Costs: Demolishing a Historic Street for a New Subway Station.
  • Empirical Study 3: Where Does Social Infrastructure Exist Near Subway Stations? A Global Assessment Using OpenStreetMap Data
• Liang’s seminar talk at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems: Beyond Nodes and Edges: Integrating Spatial Contexts into Urban Network Science (recommend to start at 29:10; repeat some contents in the PhD dissertation)
• Network Duality Case Study Library (recommend to scan the QR code and read the case studies)

What proposals are desired?

You can come up with your own topic, or follow along with one of the inquires below. Please note that these are broad directions; you will need to submit a more SPECIFIC research question in your proposal. One tip to start thinking about a specific research question is to map these thinkings to a specific type of network or network feature (e.g., killer intersection, highway, golf course, cloud server infrastructure, etc.). Network Duality Case Study Library above demonstrated examples that these broader principles may be mapped to specific types of network or network feature.

• What are the negative impacts of network infrastructure that facilitates “zippy” movements in the city, and how can we quantify these impacts from a network perspective? Here are some inspiring papers (Urban Highways are Barriers to Social Ties; Dividing Highways: Barrier Effects and Environmental Justice in California).
• Are urban networks or network infrastructure serving higher speeds of flows (e.g., traffic flows, transactions, information exchange, etc.) also more exclusive/unequal (e.g., more homogenous, higher barrier for entry, run by a single population, etc.)?
• Are urban networks or network infrastructure serving a wider geographic range (e.g., covering a large geographic area, serving populations from a broader range of places, for regional development goals, etc.) also more exclusive/unequal (e.g., incurring higher costs for local residents)?
• What kinds of urban network infrastructure are more likely to be exclusive or inclusive and why? For instance, among bike repair initiatives, community gardens, libraries, and marker spaces, which one is more likely to be a bridge between different social networks? If so, how do we measure the ability to integrate networks, aka inclusion?
• What might a network impact assessment look like for planners planning urban infrastructure embedded in networks (e.g., transit, truck routes, subway, etc.)?
• How has the term “connectivity” been used in planning rhetoric? What type of connectivity does it usually refer to in practice (e.g., is it usually about road design and accessibility?) and how do people measure it?
• What tools can we develop to help urban planners articulate the tradeoffs and impacts between different connectivity scenarios?

Who should submit

If you are an advanced student who is ready to take up independent research, familiar with quantitative and computational methods, and want to apply for grad school or publish a paper, this will be a great opportunity.

You need to be eligible to work in the U.S. I am inclined to work with a UMich student or recently graduated UMich student, but I am open to students enrolled in or recently graduated from a university outside of UMich, if the proposal is really attractive. I am only able to work with students in U.S. at the moment.