Digital social networks and commercial gentrification in the metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico. Twitter as a tool for studying economic urban processes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/estgeogr.2025.1292Keywords:
Commercial gentrification, digital gentrification, big data, commercial location, consumptionAbstract
The present study aims to analyze the relationship between the presence of users and Twitter activity in the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM) and the centrality of commercial activity associated with commercial gentrification. To this purpose this article uses novel data sources such as Twitter. Thus, the research is framed within a growing interest in the gentrification process from an economic perspective, which transforms urban spaces by displacing traditional activities with consumer and entertainment-related commercial activities, such as restaurants, boutiques, galleries, among others. At the same time, it proposes a novel data source for measuring urban processes, such as data from the Internet, which are still being explored by geography. The main findings of the research identify a higher volume of tweets and user presence in gentrified neighborhoods with the aforementioned commercial activities, particularly during evening hours and on weekends. Similarly, a positive association is identified between the number of tweets and the density of commercial establishments in the neighborhoods of the ZMVM. Additionally, a text analysis of the tweets is conducted, revealing that tweets mentioning these economic activities predominantly originate from gentrified neighborhoods with a high centrality of luxury commerce.
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