User:Nettoworks

Vinicius M. Netto investigates cities as networks of segregation, information and cooperation. He proposed the approach to the real-time, dynamic segregation experienced by individuals in their daily urban trajectories in 1999 in Brazil during his MPhil studies. Having researched segregation over 25 years, he identified the need for a taxonomy of segregation forms and conceptualised approaches to map the vast interdisciplinary landscape of segregation research and to identify the genesis of new concepts of segregation with Renato Saboya, Kimon Krenz, Otavio Peres and Maria Fiszon.

Along with new ways to conceptualise segregation, Vinicius focuses on the morphogenesis of built form and the information signatures of such configurations as expressions of the diverse social cultures that shape cities. Vini and colleagues devised a method aimed at disentangling the effect of buildings on the social life of streets and neighbourhoods from the effect of street networks. He also developed a theory of the interplay of communication and space, addressing how the semantic meaning of buildings and urban space supports communication as a catalyst for interaction systems during his PhD research under Bill Hillier's supervision. Currently, he investigates how societies structure and enact urban configurations to combine seemingly disorganised individual actions into coherent large-scale cooperation systems — a critical recursive process in how societies manage tendencies towards entropy and segregation.

Vini is a Principal Researcher at the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, University of Porto (CITTA | FEUP), Portugal. He is the author of The Social Fabric of Cities (Routledge) and over a hundred articles and chapters.