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Papers

No. 4 (2021)

Pandemic and (Im)mobility: the spatial effects of the lockdown through digital platform’s Big Data

  • FrancoAngeli Journals
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/rgioa4-2021oa12956
Submitted
novembre 19, 2021
Published
2021-12-03

Abstract

In the absence of vaccines and due to an emergency generated by the rapid spread of the pandemic, the strategy adopted to counter the diffusion of COVID-19 was social distancing and lockdown measures which strongly influenced the mobility of individuals.
In this context, the study aims to measure the spatial effects of these measures on mobility in two moments – during and after the italian lockdown – and for different functions (residence, workplaces, leisure, public transport). To this end, the contribution analyzes the spatial data made available by the digital platforms Google and Facebook through the Google Mobility Report and Facebook Data for Good programs. On the one hand, results show in (near) real-time the attractive and repulsive areas for insistent population, on the other hand, offer a critical reflection on the role of ‘platform data’ in a context of the growing diffusion of digital platforms in our society.

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