Digital Frictions

Caught in the Spotlight

Networked technologies are setting the stage for new forms of urban surveillance. From Amazon’s Ring doorbell to the Detroit Police Department’s Project Green Light, what kinds of performances do digital tracking tools encourage people to put on?

Digital Frictions

Connecting at the Counter

More than a convenience store, the humble bodega is a deeply networked site where neighborhood life intersects with larger scales of social, cultural and economic exchange — and a growing digital presence.

Digital Frictions

Building the People's Internet

Communities on the front lines of the climate crisis have seen the immediate benefits of locally-managed digital infrastructure. But beyond resilience, grassroots networks are a test case for a collectively-forged technological future.

To Stop Displacement, Disclose the Data!

For more than half a century, real estate data has played a crucial role in struggles against housing discrimination and dispossession. But what information is needed now in the face of changing forms of speculation?

Digital Frictions

Latchkey Living

An indicator species in vinyl and metal, the streetside lockbox signals the rise of a short-term city.

Castaways of Jamaica Bay

By way of natural disaster and human folly, a staggering amount of marine debris litters the waters and shores of an important estuary habitat. Meet the volunteers trying to salvage the situation.

Schools Apart, Together

When vastly different institutions are located in the same building, do students learn how to share, or how the city is profoundly unfair?

East Harlem Gets Ready

For high school students in the Climate Resilience Leadership Lab, emergency preparedness means mobilizing the neighborhood.

Co-Op City

Rather than extractive economic development, the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative cultivates a vision of home-grown wealth that stays in the borough.

People Movers

For a Level Field

For an equal shot at competitive sports in New York City public high schools, students and teachers fight to untangle the knot of race and space.