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Demanding Business Travel: The Evolution of the Timespaces of Business Practice

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Demanding Energy

Abstract

To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work complement rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schatzki’s conception of timespace to capture changes in how two UK-based global construction and engineering consulting firms organise work and the implications in terms of demand for business travel. Over time, particular forms of spatially stretched organisations which have developed are found to require the interweaving of timespaces through travel. As such, how each firm has evolved has in turn created the contemporary situation of significant and hard to reduce demand for travel.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Though Schatzki uses the term activity timespace to differentiate it from Heidegger’s notion of timespace which is also a crucial feature of human life, our use of timespace accords with the concept as developed by Schatzki.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Ian Jones, Greg Marsden & Jillian Anable

  2. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    James Faulconbridge

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  1. Ian Jones
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  2. James Faulconbridge
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  3. Greg Marsden
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  4. Jillian Anable
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Allison Hui

  2. School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Rosie Day

  3. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Gordon Walker

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Jones, I., Faulconbridge, J., Marsden, G., Anable, J. (2018). Demanding Business Travel: The Evolution of the Timespaces of Business Practice. In: Hui, A., Day, R., Walker, G. (eds) Demanding Energy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61991-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61991-0_12

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61990-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61991-0

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