Social activity-travel dynamics with core contacts: evidence from a two-wave personal network data

ABSTRACT

With the interest on understanding and modeling the role of transport on social networks, the objective of this research is to study social network dynamics by explicitly collecting and modeling data from people’s personal networks in two points of time. Using data collected in a two-year panel in Concepción, Chile, a multilevel model highlights the role of respondents’ characteristics and social contact attributes in personal network dynamics. At the respondents’ level, the results highlight the relevance of important life events and material conditions, such as income and car ownership. At the level of the social contacts, the results highlight how tie maintenance is influenced by aspects such as kinship, emotional closeness, monetary support, sex and income similarity, neighboring, and high frequency of face-to-face and telephone interactions. Despite some challenges and limitations, this research remarks the feasibility of collecting personal network dynamics, and its relevance to understand and inform social activity-travel models.

KEYWORDS:

• Social networks
• behavioral dynamics
• activity-travel behavior
• longitudinal data collection
• multilevel models