"We're losing our neighborhoods. We're losing our community": A comparative analysis of community discourse in online and offline public spheres

2025-03-10

AI Summary

This study addresses a critical gap in crisis informatics concerning the long-term recovery phase, examining how climate gentrification—driven by climate change—and housing inequality are continuously negotiated across online (neighborhood Facebook groups) and offline (municipal meetings) public spheres. Focusing on eight months of community discourse in a New York City neighborhood post-Hurricane Ida, we employ a mixed-methods approach: LDA topic modeling, critical discourse analysis, participatory observation, and structured coding. Results reveal high thematic convergence across platforms—including housing safety, governmental trust, and resource allocation—confirming their function as complementary public spheres. This work constitutes the first systematic demonstration of cross-platform discursive co-evolution under chronic crisis conditions. It advances novel frameworks for cross-platform participatory design and resilience-oriented governance, thereby shifting crisis informatics from emergency response toward long-term structural equity.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Humans and AI: Crowd Sourcing and Human Computation
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Graph Mining, Social Network Analysis & Community

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Media and governance, opinion dynamics, filter bubbles, polarization
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web applications in cross-disciplinary domains and verticals such as mixed reality, smart cities, and digital health

Abstract

Recovering from crises, such as hurricanes or wildfires, is a complex process that can take weeks, months, or even decades to overcome. Crises have both acute (immediate) and chronic (long-term) effects on communities. Crisis informatics research often focuses on the immediate response phase of disasters, thereby overlooking the long-term recovery phase, which is critical for understanding the information needs of users undergoing challenges like climate gentrification and housing inequity. We fill this gap by investigating community discourse over eight months following Hurricane Ida in an online neighborhood Facebook group and Town Hall Meetings of a borough in the New York Metropolitan region. Using a mixed methods approach, we examined the use of social media to manage long-term disaster recovery. The findings revealed a significant overlap in topics, underscoring the interconnected nature of online and offline community discourse, and illuminated themes related to the long-term consequences of disasters. We conclude with recommendations aimed at helping designers and government leaders enhance participation across community forums and support recovery in the aftermath of disasters.

Problem

• Investigates long-term disaster recovery discourse post-Hurricane Ida.
• Examines online and offline community interactions during recovery.
• Addresses information needs in climate gentrification and housing inequity.

Innovation

• Mixed methods analyze online and offline discourse.
• Focus on long-term recovery post-disaster phases.
• Social media aids in disaster recovery management.