Do similar social groups have similar mobility in a city? Social areas and mobility in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

<p>Social area analysis has been applied to analyze how urban space is spatially arranged. Related studies have divided urban residents into different groups whose socioeconomic status are similar. However, few studies have attempted to explore the mobility of these social groups, especially for developing countries where census data with travel information are not readily available. This study explores whether people in the same social area have similar work mobility and whether location matters from an aggregated neighborhood perspective. A case study is conducted in Shenzhen, China with fine-grained census and mobile phone data. The neighborhood committee based census and cell tower based mobile phone data are integrated into 500 m grid for analysis. Results show that different social areas have significantly different work mobility, and the within-group heterogeneity is also prominent. Three location factors are examined and it is found that there exist variations in the influence of spatial factors on work mobility for different social areas. Findings of this study will supplement current knowledge about social areas, location and mobility in urban China at the mesoscale. In addition, the methodology provides a feasible framework of integrating city-scale socioeconomic information and mobility data from different sources for future urban studies.</p>