Despite the ‘mobility turn’ in urban studies, there is surprisingly little research into the role people’s everyday movements play in driving urbanisation processes. As this paper discusses, one reason this has not occurred is because understanding this relationship requires both quantitative and qualitative knowledge, including geospatial locations and patterns as well as why people choose to move the way they do. Few studies employ mixed methods to this end; instead, many quantitative approaches focus on the use of big data and many qualitative approaches remain focused on sites themselves rather than the movements between them. This methodological gap can preclude operationalising findings and proves particularly detrimental when research is conducted into areas with high levels of poverty and inequality. In response, this paper presents a mixed-methods approach to studying urbanisation, using volunteered geographic information (VGI) to map regional-scale movements in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). Exploiting the potential of smartphone technology, this methodology operates at the interstice of quantitative and qualitative research, describing both macro-scale mobility patterns and the micro-scale decisions behind them. Using the case study of the GCR, it highlights movement as a strategy for those living in poverty, who can utilise the entire region as a resource to subvert entrenched inequality. ‘Thinking through people’ suggests that a new ontology of categories describing urbanisation processes in terms of movement could connect empirical research into poverty and inequality to theory, and be used to create an epistemology of the urban from below. Thus, this paper contributes to advances in urban studies methods as well as to debates on urbanisation, relational poverty and socio-spatial inequality.

尽管城市研究出现了“流动性转向”，但令人惊讶的是，很少有人研究人们的日常运动在推动城市化进程中的作用。正如本文所讨论的，未发生这种情况的一个原因是因为了解这种关系需要定量和定性的知识，包括地理空间位置和样式以及人们为什么选择移动方式。为此，很少有研究采用混合方法。相反，许多定量方法侧重于大数据的使用，许多定性方法仍侧重于站点本身，而不是站点之间的移动。这种方法上的差距可以排除可操作性的发现，并且在对贫困和不平等程度高的地区进行研究时，尤其不利。作为回应，本文提出了一种研究城市化的混合方法，即使用自愿地理信息（VGI）来绘制豪登市地区（GCR）的区域规模运动图。利用智能手机技术的潜力，该方法在定量和定性研究的间隙进行操作，描述了宏观尺度的流动性模式和背后的微观尺度的决策。利用GCR的案例研究，它突出了运动作为针对贫困人口的战略，他们可以利用整个地区作为颠覆根深蒂固的不平等的资源。“通过人们的思考”表明，一种新的以运动方式描述城市化过程的类别本体论可以将对贫困和不平等现象的实证研究与理论联系起来，并可以用来从下面创建城市的认识论。从而，