The contribution deals with possible interactions between an individual internet use, here understood as virtual mobility, and individual physical mobility. With the help of a model construction the basic thesis is put forward that virtual and physical mobility influence each other and the internet will change our mobility patterns. With regard to private traffic change or substitution is suspected especially in the areas of telework and e-commerce because the internet makes work and shopping possible independent of room and time. This at least partially existing possibility of 'spaceless' human interactions leads, from a geographic perspective, to the fundamental question which interactions between virtual and physical space and the corresponding flows of traffic there are. With empirical results five different mobility types are identified regarding the purpose of their 'purchase'. Different physical mobility types (place bound or flexible) and different virtual mobility types (mobile or immobile) can be distinguished. The relevance of different soziodemographic indicators for the explanation of individual mobility samples is found out. Here the 'virtually mobile types' are distinguished by a higher income, a higher level of education, a smaller household and an urban living environment. It must be noticed that the presumed connection between physical and virtual mobility types cannot be confirmed with the results. The thesis that physical immobility inevitably leads to virtual immobility must be rejected. And a 'high' physical mobility just as little leads immediately to a 'high' virtual mobility. However, it is true that the same socio-economic factors have an influence on physical as well as virtual mobility.
Physical and virtual mobility: attempt of a theoretical model construction and first empirical findings
2002
8 Seiten, 4 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 10 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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