Power & Privilege Index — Methodology

This project is satire. It mirrors existing “neighborhood scoring” tools in order to demonstrate how biased assumptions can be embedded in seemingly neutral data systems.

Overview

The Power & Privilege Index aggregates publicly available points-of-interest data related to wealth, political influence, and institutional power. These features are weighted and combined to produce a normalized score between 0 and 100.

Data Sources

Data is derived from open geographic datasets including OpenStreetMap and other public registries. No personally identifiable information is collected, stored, or displayed.

Scoring Model

Each geographic cell aggregates the presence of selected features such as hedge funds, private equity firms, lobbying offices, and exclusive leisure facilities. These counts are multiplied by predefined weight factors and summed.

Scores are normalized using percentile-based scaling and inverted to produce an index from 0 (high concentration) to 100 (minimal concentration).

Limitations

Any attempt to reduce complex human communities to numerical scores risks reinforcing harmful stereotypes. This project intentionally demonstrates how such systems can appear objective while embedding subjective judgments.

Purpose

This site exists to encourage critical thinking about how data, algorithms, and visualizations influence public perception. It is not intended for decision-making, ranking, or exclusion.

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