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The Reparative Technology Lab studies urban technologies, collects data, and builds tools and visualizations to expose the inequities behind urban technologies and contribute to repairing the relationships by actively acknowledging and addressing past harms.

Research Themes

Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

We investigate urban technologies' process of collecting data and training algorithms that render historical harms invisible during the measurement, training, and deployment processes.

Reparative Technology

We develop actionable and reparative algorithms that have direct implications for racial justice.

Community-centered Data

We develop data tools and visualizations that are designed for the communities they serve.

Our Approach

Our approach is to uncover how urban technologies formalize present-day outputs in ways that disconnect them from past wrongs — and, by doing so, to shift the work of creating urban technologies toward redress.

Our Work

By Research Theme

By Tags

Housing data politics in the United States: Inequitable open data, informal networks, and strategic neutrality
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

Housing data politics in the United States: Inequitable open data, informal networks, and strategic neutrality

Journal of Urban Affairs

DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2025.2554754

Profile of Wonyoung
Choice denied: impact of income and credit-based tenant screening on the Housing Choice Voucher program
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

Choice denied: impact of income and credit-based tenant screening on the Housing Choice Voucher program

Housing Studies

DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2025.2498385

Profile of Wonyoung
Reparative Urban Science: Challenging the Myth of Neutrality and Crafting Data-Driven Narratives
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology Reparative Technology

Reparative Urban Science: Challenging the Myth of Neutrality and Crafting Data-Driven Narratives

Planning Theory & Practice

DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2024.2397017

Profile of Wonyoung
Race, profit, and algorithms: Neighborhood-level analysis of iBuyers’ profit margin
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

Race, profit, and algorithms: Neighborhood-level analysis of iBuyers’ profit margin

Journal of Urban Affairs

DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2024.2415936

Profile of Wonyoung
Racial Steering by Large Language Models: A Prospective Audit of GPT-4 on Housing Recommendations
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

Racial Steering by Large Language Models: A Prospective Audit of GPT-4 on Housing Recommendations

EAAMO '24

DOI: 10.1145/3689904.3694709

Profile of Wonyoung
OpenTSS: Countering Tenant Screening
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

OpenTSS: Countering Tenant Screening

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Profile of Wonyoung
Which Information Matters? Measuring Landlord Assessment of Tenant Screening Reports
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

Which Information Matters? Measuring Landlord Assessment of Tenant Screening Reports

Housing Policy Debate

DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2022.2113815

Profile of Wonyoung
Race-neutral vs race-conscious: Using algorithmic methods to evaluate the reparative potential of housing programs
Reparative Technology

Race-neutral vs race-conscious: Using algorithmic methods to evaluate the reparative potential of housing programs

Big Data & Society

DOI: 10.1177/20539517231210272

Profile of Wonyoung
The audit: Perils and possibilities for contesting oppression in the heritage landscape
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology

The audit: Perils and possibilities for contesting oppression in the heritage landscape

Profile of Wonyoung
Beyond Fairness: Reparative Algorithms to Address Historical Injustices of Housing Discrimination in the US
Reparative Technology

Beyond Fairness: Reparative Algorithms to Address Historical Injustices of Housing Discrimination in the US

FAccT '22

DOI: 10.1145/3531146.3533160

Profile of Wonyoung
Industry & Trade Ecosystem of Cheongyecheon, Euljiro
Community-centered Data

Industry & Trade Ecosystem of Cheongyecheon, Euljiro

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Profile of Wonyoung
Columbus is still honored in 6,000 places across the U.S
Community-centered Data

Columbus is still honored in 6,000 places across the U.S

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Profile of Wonyoung
Cartographers of North Korea
Community-centered Data

Cartographers of North Korea

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Profile of Wonyoung
Landlord Tech Watch
Exposing Inequality in Urban Technology Community-centered Data

Landlord Tech Watch

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Profile of Wonyoung
From Point A to Point B
Community-centered Data

From Point A to Point B

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Profile of Wonyoung

Team

Headshot of Wonyoung So

Wonyoung So

Assistant Professor

University of Michigan

Wonyoung So is an Assistant Professor of Urban Technology at Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.

He works at the intersection of urban planning, critical data studies, and data visualization to study how access to resources and opportunities over space and place is mediated by data and technology, with a particular focus on housing. He combines data-driven methods and data visualization practices to empirically bolster and rhetorically frame narratives for translating scholarly research into public impact. He centers issues of justice and equity to promote the democratic participation of marginalized residents—particularly those marginalized by class, race, gender, and disability, among other durable categories of inequality—who are disproportionately excluded from accessing resources and opportunities, especially when such access is governed by algorithms and AI.

Interested in joining?

We're always looking for passionate researchers and collaborators who share our vision for urban justice and technology. Get in touch to learn more about opportunities.