1,070
Views
24
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Measuring urban activities using Foursquare data and network analysis: a case study of Murcia (Spain)

, , &
Pages 100-121 | Received 26 Nov 2015, Accepted 07 May 2016, Published online: 24 May 2016
 

ABSTRACT

Among social networks, Foursquare is a useful reference for identifying recommendations about local stores, restaurants, malls or other activities in the city. In this article, we consider the question of whether there is a relationship between the data provided by Foursquare regarding users’ tastes and preferences and fieldwork carried out in cities, especially those connected with business and leisure. Murcia was chosen for case study for two reasons: its particular characteristics and the prior knowledge resulting from the fieldwork. Since users of this network establish, what may be called, a ranking of places through their recommendations, we can plot these data with the objective of displaying the characteristics and peculiarities of the network in this city. Fieldwork from the city itself gives us a set of facilities and services observed in the city, which is a physical reality. An analysis of these data using a model based on a network centrality algorithm establishes a classification or ranking of the nodes that form the urban network. We compare the data extracted from the social network with the data collected from the fieldwork, in order to establish the appropriateness in terms of understanding the activity that takes place in this city. Moreover, this comparison allows us to draw conclusions about the degree of similarity between the preferences of Foursquare users and what was obtained through the fieldwork in the city.

Acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by Spanish Govern, Ministerio de Economía y Competividad, the reference number of which is TIN2014-53855-P.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by Spanish Govern, Ministerio de Economía y Competividad, the reference number of which is TIN2014-53855-P.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 704.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.