Everyday Life and Spatial Mobility of Young People in Prague: A Pilot Study Using Mobile Phone Location Data

Abstract

The aim of the pilot study is to examine the possibilities of mobile phone location data in geographical research of the everyday life and individual spatial mobility of the population. Developing and testing a new research instrument thus represent the key aims of the pilot study. The proposed technique is 'tried out' on a group of young people living or working in Prague. Their daily activities and spatial mobility are explored and discussed against the everyday and geographical context of the young people´s lives. Theoretically the study draws on the strong tradition of time geography as well as on the new geography of everyday life. Methodologically the research combines two different types of data sources and the relevant analytical tools. First, mobile phone location data are used to record the daily trajectories of the participants. Second, deep interpretative interviews are carried out to understand the reasons and motives behind the recorded daily trajectories. Despite a few technical obstacles in mobile phone location data processing, the pilot study proved the very promising potential of this source, especially in combination with interviews, when studying the patterns of the everyday life and individual spatial mobility of an urban population.

The dynamics of population distributions in cities based on daily mobile phone operations: A case study of some Moravian cities

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Changing Mobility Lifestyle

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The experience of using the mobile phone data in economic geographical researches in foreign

“…Обширный блок работ посвящен изучению поведения отдельных социальных страт. Здесь стоит выделить работы по изучению мобильности в разрезе возрастных (на примере Праги и Эстонии), этнических (на примере эстоно-и русскоязычных жителей Таллина), гендерных (на примере жителей пригородов Таллина), национальных (на примере иностранцев в Милане) групп (Novak and Temelova, 2012;Silm et al, 2013;Silm and Ahas, 2014;Bajardi et al, 2015;Masso et al, 2018).…”