Social topography: Studying spatial inequality using a 3D regional model (2018)
Authors: Meirav Aharon-Gutman, Mordechai Schaap, Idan Lederman
Abstract: This study’s point of departure is the need to develop a new theoretical language and tool-box to contend with the rising inequality that continues to expand under the spatially intensive and high density conditions stemming from demographic growth and large migration movements. Its response to this challenge is a 3D regional model based on the immersive visualization theater (VizLab) maintained by the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. Following the breakthrough in research on spatial inequality facilitated by VR technology, we propose “social topography” as a theory and a modelling method that stands to make a significant contribution to both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Social topography, we maintain, creates a new sociology: one of contour lines and spatially embedded hierarchies that exists under VR conditions and enables us to put on 3D glasses and go where the research community has not yet gone before.