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Big Data collected by customer-facing organisations – such as smartphone logs, store loyalty card transactions, smart travel tickets, social media posts, or smart energy meter readings – account for most of the data collected about citizens today. As a result, they are transforming the practice of social science. Consumer Big Data are distinct from conventional social science data not only in their volume, variety and velocity, but also in terms of their provenance and fitness for ever more research purposes. The contributors to this book, all from the Consumer Data Research Centre, provide a first consolidated statement of the enormous potential of consumer data research in the academic, commercial and government sectors – and a timely appraisal of the ways in which consumer data challenge scientific orthodoxies.
Big Data collected by customer-facing organisations – such as smartphone logs, store loyalty card transactions, smart travel tickets, social media posts, or smart energy meter readings – account for most of the data collected about citizens today. As a result, they are transforming the practice of social science. Consumer Big Data are distinct from conventional social science data not only in their volume, variety and velocity, but also in terms of their provenance and fitness for ever more research purposes. The contributors to this book, all from the Consumer Data Research Centre, provide a first consolidated statement of the enormous potential of consumer data research in the academic, commercial and government sectors – and a timely appraisal of the ways in which consumer data challenge scientific orthodoxies.
‘An insightful, state-of-the-art guide into the social and commercial value of applying geographical thinking to the study of consumer data.’ Professor Richard Harris, University of Bristol
‘An excellent guide to leveraging the value of academic research on valid data. Partnerships based around consumer data should be encouraged and supported by all and their outputs used to better the way we manage the world we live in.’ Bill Grimsey, retailer and author of The Vanishing Highstreet
‘The use of data from everyday consumer transactions is a potential game-changer for understanding economic and social patterns and trends. This is an excellent overview of the field.’ Dr. Tom Smith, Managing Director, Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus
Paul A. Longley (Editor)
Paul Longley is Professor of Geographic Information Science at UCL where he also directs the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre. His research interests are focused around socioeconomic applications of GIScience, in geo-temporal demographics, retailing, genealogy and urban modelling, latterly often using Big Data analytics.
Alex Singleton (Editor)
Alex Singleton is Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool and Deputy Director of the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre. His research explores how the complexities of individual behaviours manifest spatially and the ways in which they can be represented and understood though a framework of geographic data science.
James Cheshire (Editor)
James Cheshire is a Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography at UCL and Deputy Director of the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre. His research focuses on the analysis and visualisation of new forms of geographically referenced population data for social science
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