Social Contacts

Partners

• Technische Universität Berlin (TU), Institut für Land- und Seeverkehr (ILS)
• Volkswagenstiftung

Staff

Prof. K.W. Axhausen

Prof. K. Nagel

Andreas Frei

Jeremy Keith Hackney

Johannes Illenberger

Matthias Kowald

Project duration

12.2007-12.2011

Project description

To consider traffic problems from the perspective of social network analysis is a comparatively new approach in traffic research. Conventional explanations for human mobility focus on the the distance between between a starting point and the point destination. Another approach is to look at the advantages that arise by moving spaciously. One new approach focuses on social relations and tries to use them as a source of explanations for spacial movements and actual traffic problems. Questions involved might be the following:

• To what degree is everyday life influenced by the behavior of friends and colleagues?
• How often and to what degree do people travel to maintain friendship acquaintanceship?
• In which way do modern communication mediums (e.g. mobile phones, internet) influence travel behavior?

The aim of this survey is to elaborate this approach. Therefore, we are reliant on your cooperation. Only with numerous individual experiences of participants generally valid conclusions can be made during the data analysis.
In terms of protection of data privacy you do not have to worry about your anonymity. The scientific personnel and the ETH Zurich highly respect the protection of data, which is treated confidentially and anonymously. Thus, allocation of data and person will not be possible. The project is to expose anonymous statistic relations only.
To cover the different spheres of the network theory within traffic research, our survey is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the social contacts of a person. The second part is a activity based travel diary for eight days in a sequence.

Report

Questionnaire

This survey is special because it tries not only to ask people towards their social contacts but also to continue by asking those contacts towards their social contacts and so on. So we would like to continue the survey with the persons named by yourself. In this way the geographical distances between you and the persons you are in contact with can be calculated. Using this method of finding respondents means to enhance the approach of surveying social networks

A procedure as such enhances the socio-scientific network research approach. Normally, a given number of persons was questioned about their friends and colleagues and herewith the research usually ended. In this project names and addresses of friends and colleagues are being collected to continue with the survey. Using this procedure makes it possible to look at the geographical and social dispersion of social networks.

• Schematic presentation (PDF 1.1MB)
• Questionnaire
  

Diary

In addition to the questionnaire we would like to ask you to to write down your activities for eight days in a sequence. This method is an established and often used approach in traffic research. The diary shows the kind of your daily activities and the amount of theses activities. As this activities will be done at different places an indicator for the resulting amount of traffic can be calculated.

Publications

• Arentze, T.A., M. Kowald and K.W. Axhausen (2012) A Method to Model Population-Wide Social Networks for Large Scale Activity-Travel Micro-Simulations, paper presented at the the 91^st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 2012. Download
• Frei, A., Kowald, M., Hackney, J. and K.W. Axhausen (2010) Die Verbindung zwischen Verkehrsplanung und sozialen Netzwerken, in C. Stegbauer und R. Häußling (eds.) Handbuch Netzwerkforschung, 891-903, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden. Download
• Illenberger, J., G. Flötteröd, M. Kowald and K. Nagel (2009) A model for spatially embedded social networks, paper presented at the 12^th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, Jaipur, December 2009. Download
• Illenberger, J., M. Kowald, K.W. Axhausen and K. Nagel (2011) Insights into a spatially embedded social network from a larger-scale snowball sample, European Physical Journal B, 84 (4) 549-563. Download
• Kowald, M. (2008) Spatial relationships and social networks: An iterative approach, paper presented at the ASNA Conference Zurich 2008, Zurich, September 2008 and the 8^th Swiss Transport Research Conference, Ascona, October 2008. Download
• Kowald, M., A. Frei, J.K. Hackney, J. Illenberger and K.W. Axhausen (2009) The influence of social contacts on leisure travel: A snowball sample of personal networks, paper presented at the 12^th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, Jaipur, December 2009. Download
• Kowald, M., A. Frei, J.K. Hackney, J. Illenberger and K.W. Axhausen (2009) Collecting data on Leisure Travel: The Link between Leisure Acquaintances and Social Interactions, Conference Paper for "Applications of Social Network Analysis" (ASNA), Zurich, 2009. Download
• Kowald, M., A. Frei, J.K. Hackney, J. Illenberger and K.W. Axhausen (2009) Using an ascending sampling strategy to survey connected egocentric networks: A field work report on phase one of the survey, Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 582, IVT, ETH Zurich, Zurich. Download
• Kowald, M., A. Frei, J.K. Hackney, J. Illenberger and K.W. Axhausen (2010) Collecting data on Leisure Travel: The Link between Leisure Acquaintances and Social Interactions, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 4 (1) 38-48. Download
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2010) The structure and spatial spread of egocentric leisure networks, Conference Paper for Applications of Social Network Analysis (ASNA), Zurich, 2010. Download
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2011) Collecting data on connected personal leisure networks, Conference Paper for the 9^th International Conference on Transport Survey Methods (ISCTSC), Thermas de Puyehue, November 2011.
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2011) Strong and weak relationships: Tie strengths in egocentric leisure networks, Conference Paper for the 106^th American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, August 2011. Download
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2012) Egos' horizons and behind it: Snowball sampling of personal leisure networks, in M.S. Grieco and J. Urry (eds.) Mobilities: New Perspectives on Transport and Society, 109-134, Ashgate, Farnham. Download
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2012) Focusing on connected personal leisure networks: selected results from a snowball sample, Environment and Planning A, 44 (5) 1085-1100. Download
• Kowald, M., J.K. Hackney and A. Frei (2008) Mögliche Vorgehensweisen zur Erhebung sozialer Netzwerkdaten durch die iterative Kombination ego-zentrierter Netzwerke, Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 506, IVT, ETH Zürich, Zürich. Download
• Kowald, M., P. van den Berg, A. Frei, J.-A. Carrasco, T. Arentze, K.W. Axhausen, D. Mok, H. Timmermans and B. Wellman (2012) The Spatiality of Personal Networks in Four Countries: A Comparative Study, paper presented at the 13^th International Conference of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research, Toronto, July 2012. Download
• Kowald, M. and T. Arentze (2010) Dealing with hierarchically clustered data: Missing value analyses and imputations, Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 656, IVT, ETH Zürich, Zürich. Download
• Kowald, M., T. Arentze and K.W. Axhausen (2012) A population's leisure network: Descriptive statistics and a model-based analysis of leisure-contact selection, paper presented at the 13^th International Conference of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research, Toronto, July 2012. Download
• Witting, A., M. Kowald and K.W. Axhausen (2011) Ageing healthy in the facebook age: New perspectives on Mobility, Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 723, IVT, ETH Zürich, Zürich. Download

Presentations

• Illenberger, J., G. Flötteröd, M. Kowald and K. Nagel (2009) A model for spatially embedded social networks, 12^th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, Jaipur. Download
• Kowald, M. (2008) Hinter Egos sozialem Netzwerk: Der Versuch einer iterativen Stichprobenziehung, IVT-Seminar, Zürich, September 2008. Download
• Kowald, M. (2008) Spatial Relationships and Social Networks: an Iterative Survey Approach, Applications of Social Network Analysis, Zurich, September 2008. Download
• Kowald, M. (2009) Collecting data on combined egocentric networks by taking a snowball sample, Sunbelt Social Networks Conference, San Diego, March 2009. Download
• Kowald, M. (2009) Collecting data on leisure contacts and daily activities, 9^th Swiss Transport Research Conference, Ascona, September 2009. Download
• Kowald, M. (2009) Collecting data on the link between leisure contacts and travel, Symposium: Frontiers in network science, Berlin. Download
• Kowald, M. (2010) The spatial spread of leisure networks: Experiences from a snowball survey, 30^th Sunbelt Social Networks Conference, Riva del Garda, July 2010. Download
• Kowald, M. (2011) Connected personal leisure networks: Survey challenges and first empirical results, Eindhoven University of Technology, April 2011. Download
• Kowald, M. (2011) Tie strength in leisure contacts, 11^th Swiss Transport Research Conference, Ascona, May 2011. Download
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2011) Surveying data on connected personal networks, 9^th International Conference on Transport Survey Methods (ISCTSC), Termas de Puyehue, November 2011. Download
• Kowald, M., J. Illenberger and K.W. Axhausen (2009) The influence of social contacts on leisure travel, 12^th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, Jaipur. Download
• Kowald, M. and K.W. Axhausen (2009) A snowball around a random sample, paper presented at the 3^rd Workshop Frontiers in Transportation, Niagara on the Lake, August 2009. Download
• Kowald, M., T. Arentze and K.W. Axhausen (2012) A population's leisure network: Descriptive statistics and a model-based analysis of leisure-contact selection, 13^th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, Toronto, July 2012.
  Download

Weitere Informationen

Research Database Projekt 33302