2026 Theses Master's

Filtering the City: Digital Platforms, the Symbolic Economy, and Platform Gentrification in NYC

Sharma, Ayanna

Platform gentrification is an emerging field of study in the scholarship on gentrification that attempts to unravel the relationships between digital platforms and changing urban character. Platforms have evolved to become intertwined with the urban fabric, functioning as active producers of urban space.

This study asks: How do digital content-creation platforms shape neighborhood character in New York City? This research investigates how platform gentrification applies to New York City through examinations of digitally visible food retail businesses located in three neighborhoods across New York City—the East Village, Williamsburg, and Astoria. This thesis finds that platform gentrification and emerging forms of digitally-mediated displacement are observable and measurable, and operates through classical mechanisms of gentrification that have been established in the field.

Keywords: gentrification, platform gentrification, displacement, TikTok, social media, New York City