New Approaches to Human Mobility: Using Mobile Phones for Demographic Research

John Palmer (), Thomas Espenshade, Frederic Bartumeus, Chang Chung, Necati Ozgencil and Kathleen Li

Demography, 2013, vol. 50, issue 3, 1105-1128

Abstract: This article explores new methods for gathering and analyzing spatially rich demographic data using mobile phones. It describes a pilot study (the Human Mobility Project) in which volunteers around the world were successfully recruited to share GPS and cellular tower information on their trajectories and respond to dynamic, location-based surveys using an open-source Android application. The pilot study illustrates the great potential of mobile phone methodology for moving spatial measures beyond residential census units and investigating a range of important social phenomena, including the heterogeneity of activity spaces, the dynamic nature of spatial segregation, and the contextual dependence of subjective well-being. Copyright Population Association of America 2013

Keywords: Spatial demography; Activity space; Segregation; Subjective well-being; Ecological momentary assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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DOI: 10.1007/s13524-012-0175-z

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