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Knowledge about the relationship between the spatial organisation of personal social networks and physical mobility is important for understanding spatial problems and social inequalities that are inseparable from spatial and social structures. To provide further insights into these relationships, this study investigates the link between the spatial distribution of individuals’ social networks and spatial mobility. We collected data from a group of ‘highly skilled’ individuals with a smartphone application and combined quantitative surveys. In general, individuals with dispersed networks tend to have more spatial mobility. Our typological approach reveals three distinctive types: (A) dispersed networks and high mobility, (B) dispersed networks and low mobility, and (C) concentrated networks and low mobility. This typology is explained by gender, the composition of the network, and the use of mobile phones and social media.

Event tourism is a rapidly growing phenomenon. Increasing numbers of events are being attended by international travellers. In this paper, we use mobile positioning data (call detail records (CDR)) to focus on visits made to Estonia over the period 2006–2013. The aim is to compare the characteristics of visits to megastar concerts with visits to other events (entertainment events, festivals, and sporting events) and regular visits. The dataset consists of 853,013 visits by 497,038 visitors. The results show a correlation between the distance travelled by an individual and the likelihood of attending a megastar concert. Visitors to megastar concerts are more likely to come from neighbouring countries and to spend less time in a destination than visitors to other events or regular visitors. The geography of visits to megastar concerts differs from that of other types of visits; on average, visitors to megastar concerts travel less within Estonia than other groups of visitors. These results indicate that the hosting of this type of event helps to diversify the supply of tourism in Estonia. It is also clear that mobile positioning data are a valuable source in studies of event tourism.

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.

Funding: We are also very grateful to the Estonian Research Agency, who has provided financial support to the five-year PRG306 project “Understanding the Vicious Circles of Segregation. A Geographic Perspective” (for more see www.segregationcircles.eu), as well as to the support of the Infotechnological Mobility Observatory (www.imo.ut.ee/en) and the EU Horizon project “UpLift (www.uplift-youth.eu). A paradigm shift is taking place in spatial segregation research. At the heart of this shift is the understanding of the connectedness of spatial segregation in different life domains and the availability of new datasets that allow for more detailed studies on these connections. In this thematic issue on spatial underpinnings of social inequalities we will outline the foundations of the ‘vicious circles of segregation’ framework to shed new light on questions such as: What is the role of residential neighbourhoods in urban inequalities in contemporary cities? Have residential neighbourhoods lost their importance in structuring daily lives since important part of social interaction takes place elsewhere? How is residential segregation related to inequalities in other important life domains, in schools, at work and during leisure time? The vicious circles of segregation framework builds on the traditional approaches to spatial segregation, as well as on the emerging new research undertaken within the ‘activity space approach’ and ‘longitudinal approach’ to segregation. The articles in this thematic issue improve our understanding of how spatial segregation is transmitted from one life domain to another as people sort into residential neighbourhoods, schools, workplace and leisure time activity sites, and gain contextual effects by getting exposed to and interacting with other people in them. Publisher PDF

The extent to which ethnic segregation results from differences in socio-economic factors remains a seminal topic of debate. The growing literature demonstrating the multifaceted phenomenon of segregation urges more focus on individuals' spatial and social interactions. We applied an activity space approach and considered ethnic differences in individuals' activity spaces as an indicator of spatial segregation. We used mobile phone and survey datasets in Estonia. We show that place-based segregation indices derived from both datasets indicate similar levels of ethnic segregation. From an activity space perspective, the results show that the main socio-economic factor affecting the extensity of activity spaces is self-estimated social status rather than education and income. Results show that ethnic inequality in spatial behaviour is not straightforward, but rather that it is linked to how individuals position themselves in society. We argue that socio-economic factors need to be controlled to examine ethnic segregation from activity space perspective.

People move for various purposes and lengths of time. Temporary mobilities across borders have become increasingly important but are difficult to observe. In considering temporary population mobili...

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.

Relationships between individuals and their social networks have a significant influence on spatial mobility and transportation needs. This article focuses on networks of calling partners using mobile phones and spatial mobility in Estonia. Mobile phone call graphs and call detail record (CDR) data have been used for this study. Our investigation indicates that the larger one’s network of calling partners using mobile phones and the larger the geographic area within which the calling partners live, the more an individual moves around. The connection between the network of mobile calling partners and spatial mobility is most influenced by gender. Used in this way, mobile phone data can be seen to allow studies to be undertaken of the connection between mobile communication networks and spatial mobility.

Both assimilation theory and common sense suggest that the longer the immigrants reside in a host society, the more they become integrated. However, studies conducted in many countries show the opp...

Due to the ongoing increase in daily mobility, reductions in border controls, and new trends in tourism, it is important to find new ways to record comprehensively the growing number of tourists. This paper describes a method of extracting cross-border statistics on tourism from roaming call activities found within passive mobile positioning data. Eesti Pank (the central bank of Estonia) has been using these data and methodology since 2008 to calculate the national balance of payments and publish tourism statistics. Statistics obtained from mobile positioning data are herein compared with statistics on accommodation. Results indicate that positioning data enables the generation of detailed statistics on tourism, and for inbound visits, there is a strong correlation with official statistics on accommodation.

This article focuses on generational differences in spatial mobility. Assuming that the ability to cope with the social transformations related to growing mobility varies significantly across generations, we use mobile positioning data collected in Estonia during 2014 providing four main indicators, namely, the number of locations visited and the distances between visited locations, within Estonia and abroad. The results indicate that spatial mobility declines linearly with age; however, a high degree of heterogeneity exists within age groups. Whereas the spatial mobility of the most active members of the younger generation takes place mostly within Estonia, among the most active older generation focus their activity beyond its borders. The study reveals “delayed mobility” patterns among the most active groups of the older generation and a new “immobility culture” among the younger generation in terms of cross‐border activities in a transition society.

The need to examine the entire scope of everyday activities of individuals in segregation studies has recently been recognized by social scientists and policy makers. To bring forth new insights into ethnic segregation through investigating the activities and movement undertaken by different population groups, we used mobile phone positioning data to compare the activity spaces of out-of-home nonemployment activities over a one-year period in Estonia and abroad. The results show that ethnicity has a significant influence on the activity spaces of individuals. The biggest differences between the two population groups occur in Estonia outside the respondents’ home city of Tallinn, where the Russian-speaking minority was found to visit 45 percent fewer districts than Estonians. Moreover, they exhibit a preference for districts that are more heavily populated by a Russian-speaking population. With respect to international travel, the Russian-speaking minority visits fewer countries and are 3.6 times more like...

Event tourism has become an important economic component of modern tourism, given the growing numbers of visitors and the development of local communities that it entails. This study examines whether the distances traveled by foreign visitors to events differ from those traveled by non-event (i.e., regular) visitors, and which factors influence such distances. We use passive mobile positioning data obtained from visitors to 145 events in Estonia (119,288 visits) and from a comparison group of regular visitors (199,859 visits) between 2006 and 2009. The results show that events visitors come from nearer locations than regular visitors; similarly to regular visitors, the distance decay principle applies in case of events visitors; and that events bring more visitors from more distant countries in the off-season (winter).

The paper presents initial steps into the research of commuting patterns and functional regions using mobile phone location data. The main aim is to introduce and discuss the potential of mobile phone location data as an alternative data sources to censuses for mapping commuting flows and subsequent functional regionalization. A set of analytical maps covering various aspects of regular daily movements of population and functional regionalization is provided. Estonia is serving as a pilot laboratory for analyses based on commuting flows derived from mobile phone location data. The maps give to reader a synthetic overview of contemporary settlement system in Estonia and introduce the potential of mobile phone location data for research in this field.

The reflection of gender roles in spatial mobility has been in the research focus of geographers as these issues are related to important aspects of the spatial organisation of society and planning such as the location of activities and services, the use of transportation, and housing policy. In this paper we compare gender-driven differences in the activity spaces of a new suburban community in the rapidly transformed former Soviet country Estonia. The authors used a questionnaire survey based on 573 households, and during eight days in 2006 tracked 256 people by mobile positioning. The results show that the space–time behaviour of men and women from the suburbs of Tallinn differs significantly in several aspects: men have larger activity spaces and drive a car more, while women’s workplaces are more concentrated in the city centre, they spend more time in suburban homes, and they use more public transportation. Comparing gender differences in Estonia with differences in other countries on the basis of similar studies conducted in Western countries, it appears that while the distribution of daily activities and the use of transportation are quite similar, there are differences in the location of workplaces. Keywords: gender, space–time mobility, mobile positioning, suburbanisation, postcommunist city, Tallinn

This article focuses on generational differences in spatial mobility. Assuming that the ability to cope with the social transformations related to growing mobility varies significantly across generations, we use mobile positioning data collected in Estonia during 2014 providing four main indicators, namely, the number of locations visited and the distances between visited locations, within Estonia and abroad. The results indicate that spatial mobility declines linearly with age; however, a high degree of heterogeneity exists within age groups. Whereas the spatial mobility of the most active members of the younger generation takes place mostly within Estonia, among the most active older generation focus their activity beyond its borders. The study reveals "delayed mobility" patterns among the most active groups of the older generation and a new "immobility culture" among the younger generation in terms of cross-border activities in a transition society.

Objectives HIV/AIDS risk is embodied within multiple levels including structural and social levels. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of neighbourhood characteristics on HIV prevalence among injection drug users (IDU) residing in the area of Tallinn, Estonia in 2007. Methods A cross-sectional, multilevel design collecting individual-level datada behaviour survey including data on self-reported residency and HIV antibody testing among 350 IDU and neighbourhood-level datadaggregate measures on socio-demo-economic residential characteristics from the 2000 Estonian census. Geocoding and multilevel modelling analysis was employed. Results Among the 350 IDU recruited, earlier age at first injection, fentanyl as the main injection drug, receptive syringe sharing, main income source other than legal employment and ever attended a syringe exchange programme remained significantly associated with increased odds of anti-HIV positivity in the multivariable analysis involving individual effects with no predictors at the neighbourhood level. In the multilevel model, individual (earlier at IDU initiation AOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.01 to 3.44; injecting opioids AOR 4.43, 95% CI 2.74 to 7.18; receptive syringe sharing AOR 2.51, 95% CI 1.86 to 3.37; main income source other than work AOR 2.04, 95% CI 1.32 to 3.14; ever attended a syringe exchange programme AOR 2.58, 95% CI 1.83 to 3.61) and neighbourhood level (higher unemployment rate AOR 5.95, 95% CI 2.47 to 14.31; greater residential change AOR 1.89, 95% CI 1.09 to 3.26) emerged as significant predictors of individual HIV-positive status. Conclusions Our results indicate that both individuallevel and emergent neighbourhood-level factors contribute to HIV risk among IDU and are amenable for preventive interventions.

The article introduces a model for the location of meaningful places for mobile telephone users, such as home and work anchor points, using passive mobile positioning data. Passive mobile positioning data is secondary data concerning the location of call activities or handovers in network cells that is automatically stored in the memory of service providers. This data source offers good potential for the monitoring of the geography and mobility of the population, since mobile phones are widespread, and similar standardized data can be used around the globe. We developed the model and tested it with 12 months' data collected by EMT, Estonia's largest mobile service provider, covering more than 0.5 million anonymous respondents. Modeling results were compared with population register data; this revealed that the developed model described the geography of the population relatively well, and can hence be used in geographical and urban studies. This approach also has potential for the development of location-b...

The objective of this study is to analyse the diurnal rhythms of city life and its spatial differences in Tallinn, using mobile telephone positioning data. The positioning experiment was carried out in April 2006 over an 8-day period and 15-min intervals, with a random sample of 277 respondents living in new residential areas outside the city of Tallinn. The investigation of the space–time movements and daily distances of respondents showed that the majority of respondents had a similar temporal rhythm related to work, school, services and leisure in the city. Because of the different timing of those activities, the mobile positioning data made it possible to map functional differences in the city. The advantages and disadvantages of mobile positioning data in mapping urban life are discussed in the final section of the study.

New housing construction is the most visible manifestation of the rapid suburbanization process taking place in the former centrally planned countries of Central Eastern Europe. This paper analyses residential housing construction around Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, in the period 1991–2005. Our data comes from the New Residential Area Survey that was carried out in 2006. The main results of the study reveal that housing construction was modest in the 1990s, but grew rapidly in the 2000s. In comparison with the Soviet period, private interest led new housing construction to take place in areas closer to Tallinn that were earlier reserved for other functions; that is former agricultural and coastal (often military) areas. Instead of the sprawl of detached housing further away from the capital city seen over time, we find increasing in-fills and multifamily housing construction in the 2000s around Tallinn. This leads to changes both in the internal structure (small but merging settlements close to T...

This paper introduces the applicability of passive mobile positioning data in studying tourism. Passive mobile positioning data is automatically stored in the memory files of mobile operators for call activities or movements of handsets in the network. For tourism studies we use database of the locations of roaming (foreign phones) call activities in network cells: the location, time, random ID and country of origin of the called phone. We describe the peculiarities of data, data gathering, sampling, the handling of the spatial database and some analysis methods, using examples from Estonia. The results proved that mobile positioning data has valuable applications for geographical studies. Correlations with conventional accommodation statistics in Estonia were up to 0.99 in the most commonly visited tourist regions. Correlations of positioning data with accommodation statistics were lower in regions with a high number of transit tourists and less tourism infrastructure. The results show that positioning data has advantages: data can be collected for larger spatial units and in less visited areas; spatial and temporal preciseness is higher than for regular tourism statistics. Random IDs allow one to study tourists’ movements, for example to study typical routes of tourists of certain nationalities. The weaknesses of data are related to problems with accessing data, as operators do not wish to share data and because of privacy and surveillance concerns. Problem is also that positioning data is another quantitative dataset with limited features.

The paper introduces methods and applications of the mobile positioning-based social positioning method in geography. The social positioning method (SPM) studies space–time behavior by analyzing the location coordinates of mobile phones and the social characteristics of the people carrying them. We describe the experience gained from the SPM pilot studies carried out in Estonia from 2003 to 2006. The results demonstrate that mobile positioning-based tracing is applicable in different geographical studies, as an analysis of temporal movement patterns and activity spaces. The biggest advantage of mobile positioning-based methods is that mobile phones are widespread, positioning works inside buildings, and collection of movement data is done by a third party at regular intervals. The disadvantage of mobile positioning today is relatively low spatial accuracy and surveillance fears. The boom in the generation of phones with A-GPS will improve positioning accuracy in networks.

This paper analyzes ethnic segregation across the whole activity space—at place of residence, place of work, and during free-time. We focus on interethnic meeting potential during free-time, measured as copresence, and its relationship to copresence at place of residence and work. The study is based on cellphone data for a medium-sized linguistically divided European city (Tallinn, Estonia), where the Estonian majority and mainly Russian-speaking minority populations are of roughly equal size. The results show that both places of residence and work are segregated, while other activities occur in a far more integrated environment. Copresence during free-time is positively associated with copresence at place of residence and work, however, the relationship is very weak.

Seasonality and seasons of Estonian landscapes are analysed using selected natural and social indicators of urban and rural landscapes. Seasonality has a great influence on the ecological and visual features of landscapes; seasonal variability is especially great in temperate climate zones where relatively cold winters alternate with warm summers. The indicators that are suitable for describing the seasonality of landscapes are natural parameters such as air temperature, radiation regime, climatic seasons and snow cover, and social parameters of birthdays, alcohol consumption and state budget allocations. Because of the great seasonal differences in natural and socio-economic conditions, the differences between urban and rural landscapes having different seasonal rhythms are focused upon. One of the main differences is the change in lifestyle which is detected in the change in the seasonal variability of births. Seasonal differences between urban and rural landscapes are also confirmed by parameters of ch...

We studied alcohol consumption and its consequences as a seasonal phenomenon in Estonia and analysed the social and environmental factors that may cause its seasonal rhythm. There are two important questions when researching the seasonality of human activities: (1) whether it is caused by natural or social factors, and (2) whether the impact of the factors is direct or indirect. Often the seasonality of social phenomena is caused by social factors, but the triggering mechanisms are related to environmental factors like temperature, precipitation, and radiation via the circannual calendar. The indicators of alcohol consumption in the current paper are grouped as: (1) pre-consumption phenomena, i.e. production, tax and excise, sales (beer, wine and vodka are analysed separately), and (2) post-consumption phenomena, i.e. alcohol-related crime and traffic accidents and the number of people detained in lockups and admitted to alcohol treatment clinics. In addition, seasonal variability in the amount of alcohol advertising has been studied, and a survey has been carried out among 87 students of Tartu University. The analysis shows that different phenomena related to alcohol have a clear seasonal rhythm in Estonia. The peak period of phenomena related to beer is in the summer, from June to August and the low point is during the first months of the year. Beer consumption correlates well with air temperature. The consumption of vodka increases sharply at the end of the year and in June; the production of vodka does not have a significant correlation with negative temperatures. The consumption of wine increases during summer and in December. The consequences of alcohol consumption, expressed as the rate of traffic accidents or the frequency of medical treatment, also show seasonal variability. Seasonal variability of alcohol consumption in Estonia is influenced by natural factors (temperature, humidity, etc.) and by social factors (celebrations, vacations, etc.). However, distinguishing between impacts of direct and indirect relationships is complicated, as they are interlinked.

The objective of current paper is to propose methodological steps for determining the physical co-presence of people using spatio-temporal movement data. Co-presence is the presence of people at the same place at the same time. In spite of the fast developing information and communication technologies the importance of face to face meetings remains high. We assess the probability of people to be at the same place at the same time using passive mobile positioning data with 350 000 randomly selected respondents from Estonia during 10 days in April 2011. We test criteria for finding the best spatial and temporal resolution to discover co-presence from mobile positioning database. Results show that the most suitable space unit for finding co-presence is site of mobile network and time unit is one minute.

The article introduces a model that uses passive mobile positioning data to determine respondents’ home and work anchor point locations. Passive mobile positioning data is secondary data concerning the location of call activities or hand-overs in network cells, which is automatically stored in the log files of service providers. This data source offers good potential for monitoring of the short-term mobility of populations, since mobile phones are widespread, and similar standardised data can be used around the globe. We developed the model and tested it with 12 months’ data collected by Estonia’s largest mobile service provider EMT, covering more than 0.5 million anonymous respondents. Modelling results were compared with population register data; this revealed that the developed model described the geography of the population relatively well, and can hence be used as a quantitative source in the study of population geography or for developing location-based services.

This paper introduces experiences with mobile positioning data in the web-based tourism management and monitoring system: “Positium Barometer”. The system has been developed for tourism enterprises, public authorities, scientists and planners to obtain statistical overviews and standardized analyses about the space-time movement of tourists. Positium Barometer uses passive mobile positioning data —location data that is stored automatically in the memory files (billing memory, hand-over logs etc) of mobile operators. Our database consists of records of the locations of roaming call activities in Estonia. Data is stored for every call activity of a foreign phone in Estonia. The data is anonymous, phone numbers and user data are not identified by mobile operators. LBS (Location Based Services) data is a new and promising source for studying the geography of tourism and space-time behaviour since the data is spatially more precise than questionnaires or accommodation statistics. The biggest problem of mobile positioning is fear of surveillance.

The aim of this study is to determine the temporal variation of ethnic segregation in the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. We employ data on mobile-phone use to compare variations in segregation indices during the day, the week, and the year. The results indicate that the locations of people are more segregated at night, with considerably less segregation during the daytime. The segregation is significantly lower on workdays compared to weekends. Segregation is also lower during summer holidays compared to the winter working period. The results show that although places of residence are segregated, different ethnic groups use the city together during the day, which increases the potential for interethnic contacts. The results demonstrate also that temporal segregation indices based on mobile-phone use are considerably lower than segregation indices of places of residence that are derived from the census.