BOOK REVIEWS © The authors 2011 Geograiska Annaler: Series B © 2011 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 1 BOOK REVIEWS International Business Travel in the Global Economy. Beaverstock, J. V., Derudder, B., Faulconbridge, J. and Witlox, F. (eds). Farnham, Ashgate 2010, 242 + xv pp. 9780754679424 (hbk). Globalization, understood as increasing global integration of production systems and businesses leading to growing international lows of goods, capital, people and information, is generally seen as the most important driving force structuring so- ciety in the twenty-irst century. Globalization is, however, not an anonymous force, but rather a com- plex set of relations taking place in multiple loca- tions around the world. Following Manuel Castells (1996, 1997 and 1998) and others, globalization might be understood as taking place in numerous different networks with the help of advanced tech- nological aids. In this context the importance of information and communications technology, ICT, has been widely discussed. Business travel, equally important for international integration, has on the other hand largely been neglected in the literature on globalization. However, every Monday between 6 and 9 in the morning, around 60 aeroplanes are departing from Copenhagen Airport to other Nordic and European cities (Copenhagen Airport 2011). A substantial part of the passengers aboard these planes are on their way to business meetings, con- ferences, trade fairs, etc. Similar lows of travellers can be recorded at most major international airports around the world. This is only one small indication of the signiicance of business travel in the global economy. The publication of the book reviewed here is, therefore, highly welcomed. It sets out to ‘advance the understanding of international business travel’ (p. 2) from a rather broad perspective. It covers the practices of business travel as well as the functional logics behind it. Social and communicational fac- tors are also discussed, such as the categories of people travelling and the kinds of relations they are creating and sustaining while performing business travel. This way, business travel is viewed as an articulation of the global economy at the same time as it ‘opens up a window into the complexities of understanding mobility in the global economy’ (p. xxiii). Following a foreword by Brian Graham and a short introduction by the editors, the book is di- vided into three parts including all together twelve chapters. The irst part concentrates on the modes of busi- ness travel, mainly business air travel. One chapter covers the structure and development of business class aviation while another presents a quantitative analysis of European patterns of business air trav- el. The following chapter discusses methodologi- cal problems in deining and measuring business travel from a destination perspective. Using mainly British data the authors for instance point to the fact that it is rather dificult to get accurate data on busi- ness travel lows from statistical records; instead surveys have to be used. The material presented does however show a rather strong increase of busi- ness travel to and from the United Kingdom during the latest decades. The irst part concludes with a chapter about private, non-scheduled, business avi- ation. This is a fast growing segment mainly aim- ing at the top managers of international companies. Using small aircraft and minor business airports they are able to arrange their own highly lexible itineraries. The second part of the book focuses on what business travel actually “is” and how it is performed within (in these cases mainly private) companies. An important aspect of this is the different ways of doing business travel, depending on time spent away from home and the functions people perform while on travel. Business travel is generally per- ceived as relatively short trips to conduct speciic tasks. Longer assignments and overseas postings, for months or longer, are often forgotten. These complexities are highlighted in the chapter by James Wickham and Alessandra Vecchi. Based on a study of the Irish software industry (a very travel intense line of business), they are able to identify various modes of conducting business travel based