IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jgeosy/v24y2022i4d10.1007_s10109-022-00388-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The geography of connectivity: a review of mobile positioning data for economic geography

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Erlström

    (Lund University)

  • Markus Grillitsch

    (Lund University
    Lund University
    Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences)

  • Ola Hall

    (Lund University)

Abstract

Connectivity between and within places is one of the cornerstones of geography. However, the data and methodologies used to capture connectivity are limited due to the difficulty in gathering and analysing detailed observations in time and space. Mobile phone data potentially offer a rich and unprecedented source of data, which is exhaustive in time and space following movements and communication activities of individuals. This approach to study the connectivity patterns of societies is still rather unexplored in economic geography. However, a substantial body of work in related fields provides methodological and theoretical foundations, which warrant an in-depth review to make it applicable in economic geography. This paper reviews and discusses the state-of-the-art in the analysis of mobile phone and positioning data, with a focus on call detail records. It identifies methodological challenges, elaborates on key findings for geography, and provides an outline for future research on the geography of connectivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Erlström & Markus Grillitsch & Ola Hall, 2022. "The geography of connectivity: a review of mobile positioning data for economic geography," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 679-707, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jgeosy:v:24:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10109-022-00388-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10109-022-00388-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10109-022-00388-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10109-022-00388-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Storper & Anthony J. Venables, 2004. "Buzz: face-to-face contact and the urban economy," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 351-370, August.
    2. Kang, Chaogui & Ma, Xiujun & Tong, Daoqin & Liu, Yu, 2012. "Intra-urban human mobility patterns: An urban morphology perspective," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(4), pages 1702-1717.
    3. Marta C. González & César A. Hidalgo & Albert-László Barabási, 2009. "Understanding individual human mobility patterns," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7235), pages 238-238, March.
    4. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2015. "Innovation in peripheral regions: Do collaborations compensate for a lack of local knowledge spillovers?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(1), pages 299-321, January.
    5. Jukka-Pekka Onnela & Samuel Arbesman & Marta C González & Albert-László Barabási & Nicholas A Christakis, 2011. "Geographic Constraints on Social Network Groups," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(4), pages 1-7, April.
    6. Joshua E. Blumenstock, 2018. "Estimating Economic Characteristics with Phone Data," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 72-76, May.
    7. Martin Andersson & Charlie Karlsson, 2007. "Knowledge in Regional Economic Growth—The Role of Knowledge Accessibility," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 129-149.
    8. Tom Kemeny & Maryann Feldman & Frank Ethridge & Ted Zoller, 2016. "The economic value of local social networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 1101-1122.
    9. Jorge De La Roca & Diego Puga, 2017. "Learning by Working in Big Cities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(1), pages 106-142.
    10. Luís M A Bettencourt & José Lobo & Deborah Strumsky & Geoffrey B West, 2010. "Urban Scaling and Its Deviations: Revealing the Structure of Wealth, Innovation and Crime across Cities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(11), pages 1-9, November.
    11. Maarten Vanhoof & Willem Schoors & Anton Van Rompaey & Thomas Ploetz & Zbigniew Smoreda, 2018. "Comparing Regional Patterns of Individual Movement Using Corrected Mobility Entropy," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 27-61, April.
    12. Guanghua Chi & Jean-Claude Thill & Daoqin Tong & Li Shi & Yu Liu, 2016. "Uncovering regional characteristics from mobile phone data: A network science approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(3), pages 613-631, August.
    13. Michael Weinhardt, 2021. "Big Data: Some Ethical Concerns for the Social Sciences," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, January.
    14. Santi Phithakkitnukoon & Zbigniew Smoreda & Patrick Olivier, 2012. "Socio-Geography of Human Mobility: A Study Using Longitudinal Mobile Phone Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-9, June.
    15. Steenbruggen, John & Tranos, Emmanouil & Nijkamp, Peter, 2015. "Data from mobile phone operators: A tool for smarter cities?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 335-346.
    16. Raun, Janika & Ahas, Rein & Tiru, Margus, 2016. "Measuring tourism destinations using mobile tracking data," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 202-212.
    17. Hernandez,Marco & Hong,Lingzi & Frias-Martinez,Vanessa & Frias-Martinez,Enrique, 2017. "Estimating poverty using cell phone data : evidence from Guatemala," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7969, The World Bank.
    18. Francesco Calabrese & Zbigniew Smoreda & Vincent D Blondel & Carlo Ratti, 2011. "Interplay between Telecommunications and Face-to-Face Interactions: A Study Using Mobile Phone Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-6, July.
    19. Nancy Ettlinger, 2003. "Cultural economic geography and a relational and microspace approach to trusts, rationalities, networks, and change in collaborative workplaces," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 145-171, April.
    20. Han Wang & Liam Kilmartin, 2014. "Comparing Rural and Urban Social and Economic Behavior in Uganda: Insights from Mobile Voice Service Usage," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 61-89, April.
    21. Elisa Giuliani, 2007. "The selective nature of knowledge networks in clusters: evidence from the wine industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 139-168, March.
    22. Nicola Cortinovis & Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Frank G van Oort, 2017. "Quality of government and social capital as drivers of regional diversification in Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(6), pages 1179-1208.
    23. repec:bla:jorssa:v:180:y:2017:i:4:p:1163-1190 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Filippo Simini & Marta C. González & Amos Maritan & Albert-László Barabási, 2012. "A universal model for mobility and migration patterns," Nature, Nature, vol. 484(7392), pages 96-100, April.
    25. Anniki Puura & Siiri Silm & Rein Ahas, 2018. "The Relationship between Social Networks and Spatial Mobility: A Mobile-Phone-Based Study in Estonia," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 7-25, April.
    26. Christina Scholten & Tora Friberg & Annika Sandén, 2012. "Re-Reading Time-Geography from a Gender Perspective: Examples from Gendered mobility," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 103(5), pages 584-600, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erlström, Andreas & Grillitsch, Markus & Hall, Ola, 2020. "The Geography of Connectivity: Trails of Mobile Phone Data," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/6, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Claudio Gariazzo & Armando Pelliccioni & Maria Paola Bogliolo, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Analysis of Urban Mobility Using Aggregate Mobile Phone Derived Presence and Demographic Data: A Case Study in the City of Rome, Italy," Data, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-25, January.
    3. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2019. "Knowledge externalities and firm heterogeneity: Effects on high and low growth firms," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 93-114, February.
    4. Max-Peter Menzel, 2008. "Dynamic Proximities – Changing Relations by Creating and Bridging Distances," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 0816, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2008.
    5. Nilsson, Magnus & Mattes, Jannika, 2015. "The spatiality of trust: Factors influencing the creation of trust and the role of face-to-face contacts," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 230-244.
    6. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Global Value Chains from an Evolutionary Economic Geography perspective: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2134, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2021.
    7. Rezapour, Shabnam & Baghaian, Atefe & Naderi, Nazanin & Sarmiento, Juan P., 2023. "Infection transmission and prevention in metropolises with heterogeneous and dynamic populations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(1), pages 113-138.
    8. Andrés Leiva-Araos & Héctor Allende-Cid, 2021. "A Hierarchical Fuzzy-Based Correction Algorithm for the Neighboring Network Hit Problem," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-36, February.
    9. Sanja Šćepanović & Igor Mishkovski & Pan Hui & Jukka K Nurminen & Antti Ylä-Jääski, 2015. "Mobile Phone Call Data as a Regional Socio-Economic Proxy Indicator," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    10. Kourtit, Karima & Nijkamp, Peter & Steenbruggen, John, 2017. "The significance of digital data systems for smart city policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 13-21.
    11. Grillitsch, Markus & Martynovich, Mikhail & Dahl Fitjar, Rune & Haus-Reve, Silje, 2019. "Why bother about region-specific growth patterns and how to identify them?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/10, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Xiping Yang & Zhiyuan Zhao & Shiwei Lu, 2016. "Exploring Spatial-Temporal Patterns of Urban Human Mobility Hotspots," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-18, July.
    13. Anthony Goerzen & Christian Geisler Asmussen & Bo Bernhard Nielsen, 2024. "Global cities, the liability of foreignness, and theory on place and space in international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(1), pages 10-27, February.
    14. Marte C.W. Solheim & Ron Boschma & Sverre Herstad, 2018. "Related variety, unrelated variety and the novelty content of firm innovation in urban and non-urban locations," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1836, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2018.
    15. Maxime Lenormand & Miguel Picornell & Oliva G Cantú-Ros & Antònia Tugores & Thomas Louail & Ricardo Herranz & Marc Barthelemy & Enrique Frías-Martínez & José J Ramasco, 2014. "Cross-Checking Different Sources of Mobility Information," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-10, August.
    16. Riccardo Crescenzi & Arnaud Dyèvre & Frank Neffke, 2022. "Innovation Catalysts: How Multinationals Reshape the Global Geography of Innovation," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(3), pages 199-227, May.
    17. Huang, Feihu & Qiao, Shaojie & Peng, Jian & Guo, Bing & Xiong, Xi & Han, Nan, 2019. "A movement model for air passengers based on trip purpose," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 525(C), pages 798-808.
    18. Shanshan Wan & Zhuo Chen & Cheng Lyu & Ruofan Li & Yuntao Yue & Ying Liu, 2022. "Research on disaster information dissemination based on social sensor networks," International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, , vol. 18(3), pages 15501329221, March.
    19. José Miguel Giner-Pérez & María Jesús Santa-María, 2021. "Spatial Agglomerations in the Spanish Food Industry: Does Sectorial Disaggregation Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 44(5), pages 515-559, September.
    20. Ian R. Gordon, 2015. "Ambition, Human Capital Acquisition and the Metropolitan Escalator," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 1042-1055, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Connectivity; Mobile phone data; Spatial mobility; Social networks; Regional development; Mobile positioning data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C00 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - General
    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jgeosy:v:24:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10109-022-00388-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.