Mapping Community Structure at the City Scale Using Social Media Data
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2025.5.3034Keywords:
urban communities, mapping urban communities, digital footprint, digital avatar, data-driven approachAbstract
Urban projects, at least in their fundamental value principles, imply the involvement of citizens and their self-organized groups in the discussion and adoption of democratic, fair, and inclusive decisions regarding urban changes. Understanding the interests and values that unite communities of citizens, the urban spaces with which they are connected, the local expertise they accumulate, as well as potential conflicts between them and other stakeholders of urban processes, is the goal of mapping urban communities within urban projects. However, within the framework of applied projects, financial, time, and human resources for comprehensive field research are limited. In this case, the solution may be to identify those communities that are united through digital social networks and demonstrate agency in the digital space of the city.
This article proposes a unique approach to mapping urban communities based on open data from city social networks. This approach includes searching, structuring, and classifying urban communities, as well as describing their activity indicators and forms of activity. This approach was developed through applied urban projects and is data-driven (that is, based on data collected and processed during applied research). The developed typology of digital urban communities is open and can be modified to meet the specific needs of new projects.
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