SODAS DATA DISCUSSION

Akrylfarver i vand - photo: colourbox
The Centre for Social Data Science (SODAS), is pleased to announce a new series of seminars we call SODAS Data Discussions.

 

SODAS aspirers to be a resource for all students and researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences. We therefor invite researchers across the faculty to present ongoing research projects, project applications or just a loose idea that relates to the subject of social data science.

 

Every month this fall semester, two researchers will present their work. The rules are simple: short research presentations of ten minutes are followed by twenty minutes of debate. No papers will be circulated beforehand, and the presentations cannot be longer than five slides.


Analyzing worldwide gender inequality in mobility through large-scale GPS trajectory data

Laura Alessandretti will present at the second SODAS Data Discussion the 12th October. Laura is a PostDoc researcher at DTU Technical University of Denmark and the Copenhagen Centre for Social Data Science, in the team of Sune Lehmann.

 

Abstract

The availability of large scale geolocated datasets has enabled scientists to advance the understanding of human mobility behaviour. While many aspects have been clarified, studies focusing on gender differences have come to different conclusions. Understanding gender inequality in human mobility is a challenging task also due to the lack of data sources providing measurements across multiple countries and age groups. In this study, we investigate gender differences in human mobility by analyzing a new dataset collecting movements of ~3 millions individuals across the world over several years. Our preliminary results show that, on average, there is a gender gap in mobility, with women scoring lower on most indicators including the daily number of steps, the typical extent of one’s whereabouts, and the exploration rate. The gender gap is typically larger for individuals between 25 and 40 years old, but the size of the gap and its evolution across the lifespan are considerably different across countries.  Our ongoing research focuses on explaining these variations, resorting to factors including cultural differences between countries and different gender policies.

 

SODAS Data Discussions will take place in Building 35, Floor 3, Room 20 (35.3.20) of the CSS Campus, University of Copenhagen, from 11.00 - 12.00 the 12th of October and the next one being the 9th of November.

  

If you are interested in presenting your work at a SODAS Data Discussion or want to know more, please write Agnete Vienberg Hansen at avh@econ.ku.dk.