The behavioural desk research in urban space analysis as a policy tool: the case of Instagram

Abstract

The dissemination of social media and the growing resources of big data create both new opportunities for urban space analysis and new challenges for contemporary policy making. Among the sources useful from this standpoint there are, inter alia, photos posted on Instagram. They can easily become the basis for behavioural analysis of the quality of urban life based on complete sampling and conducted in the method of deskresearch. The article uses photographs published on Instagram for the purpose of exploratory analysis of land use on the examples of five parks located in New York. This makes it possible to determine the nature and ways of perception of selected spaces.