Mobile Positioning Data

Peer reviewe

Mobile phones for space-time analysis of society

Peer reviewe

The impact of COVID-19 on daily lives of transnational people based on smartphone data : Estonians in Finland

Global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic affect both the functioning of our societies and the daily lives of people. Yet the impact of the crisis and its mitigation measures have exerted disproportionate influence on different population groups. In March – May 2020, COVID-19 mitigation measures such as closures of national borders affected transnational people who cross borders frequently for work, shopping, services, family reasons and socialising. We have examined the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily lives of transnational Estonians residing in Finland, based on a unique longitudinal smartphone tracking survey. Findings show that besides a drastic but expected decrease in trans-nationals’ spatial mobility, the pandemic has especially affected their cross-border mobility patterns to and time spent in Estonia. Interestingly, during the lockdown, some transnationals decided to stay not in their primary home in Finland, but in Estonia. Mobile phone communication activity followed moderately the downward trend of spatial mobility, but the crisis changed the division of communication partners by country: Finnish contacts diminished, whereas Estonian partners remained active. We reflect on our findings for future research and discuss the applicability of the smart-phone tracking approach for capturing the socio-spatial interactions of transnational people.Peer reviewe

The Relationship between Ethno-Linguistic Composition of Social Networks and Activity Space: A Study Using Mobile Phone Data

This study is a contribution to the discussion on the ethnic segregation cycle, through the examination of individuals’ activity spaces—including residence and workplace—and from the perspective of social networks. Bridging social ties can be a key factor in higher minority inclusion and in breaking the vicious circle of segregation. We compare the spatial behaviour of two ethno-linguistic population groups living in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city (Estonian-speaking majority and Russian-speaking minority), each of which have co- and interethnic social networks, through the use of mobile positioning (call detail records) and call-graph data. Among our main findings, we show firstly that interethnic social networks are more common for the Russian-speaking minority population. The probability of having an interethnic network is related to the ethno-linguistic composition of the residential district concerned; districts with a higher proportion of residents from another ethnic group tend to favour interethnic networks more. Secondly, the activity space is related to the ethno-linguistic composition of the social networks. Spatial behaviour is most expansive for Estonian speakers with co-ethnic networks, and most constrained for Russian speakers with co-ethnic networks. At the same time, speakers of Estonian and Russian with interethnic networks show rather similar spatial behaviours: They tend to visit more districts where the proportion of people from the other ethno-linguistic group is higher. Interethnic networks are therefore related to spatial behaviour, which can indicate interethnic meeting points and locations, something that is regarded as being important in assimilation and segregation cycle theories