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Anne E. Green and Angela Canny (2003) Geographical Mobility: Family Impacts, Bristol: The Policy Press, 60pp. ISBN: 1 86134 501 1

The geographical mobility of any population both reflects and affects broader social processes in society. A better understanding of the processes of geographical mobility can enable more comprehensive insights into issues such as economic restructuring, globalization and social polarization, to name just a few. As well as its relationship with these ‘macro’ processes, geographical mobility also reflects and affects numerous interconnected ‘micro’ processes in society, such as changes in housing markets, changes in family structures, changes in work routines and less tangible changes in individuals’ experiences. Anne Green and Angela Canny’s book, Geographical Mobility: Family Impacts addresses the relationship between geographical mobility and some such ‘micro’ processes. This book, as the title implies, concentrates on the family impacts of geographical mobility. It is a particularly valuable book, primarily because rather than taking the tried-and-tested path of mobility research and concentrating on geographical mobility of large cohort groups or of seemingly disconnected individuals, it takes the less common approach of using the family, rather than the individual, as its primary unit of analysis. In doing so, it acknowledges that geographical mobility is seldom undertaken, or experienced, by individuals cut off from their family members. The book is essentially a report on the findings and implications of research carried out by the authors in Britain in 2001–2002. Green and Canny undertook a series of interviews with key informants from the Confederation of British Industry Employee Relations Council, relocation agencies, representatives from trade unions, central government and regional economic development agencies. In addition, they spoke to at least one human resources representative from each of their twelve case study employers, interviewed sixty-four employees and twenty-one employee partners. The employees interviewed were white-collar workers in large companies in Britain. In this sense, the study is limited in that it addresses to experiences of a select group working for a limited number of organizations. However, the authors are careful to acknowledge these limitations and within the confines they have imposed upon themselves appear to have undertaken a comprehensive, and certainly very interesting, study. There are a number of instances in this book where the authors ‘stand outside the square’ so to speak. First, as already mentioned, they concentrate on the family, rather than individual (or large cohort) effects of migration. Secondly, they address the experiences of mobility, which is important as experience is often neglected in mobility studies. Third, they address both economic and non-economic impacts of migration and both economic and non-economic issues determining the migration experience. Finally, they promote the particularly useful concept of ‘cultures’ of mobility and immobility, the idea that given two families in similar material circumstances and with similar characteristics, one family may be more predisposed to geographical mobility and the other to geographical stability. While this book is not specifically targeted towards housing issues, it is a particularly useful book for housing researchers. The book includes a number of specific examples of housing issues faced by relocating families, including the creation of two-house families when one member of the family takes up short-term contract work or long-distance commuting to their workplace where they stay for the week; the impact of house prices in origin and destination areas on decisions regarding the sale of a house and even moving at all; and the importance of having an employer’s help in purchasing a property when relocating. However, this book is also relevant to housing researchers at a more fundamental level. Geographical mobility is a housing issue at the most basic level because when people move to another geographical location they must also change their housing situation. Mobility researchers and housing researchers thus have much to offer each other. For example, common interests in the impact of families on housing and mobility decisions and the subsequent impact of housing and mobility decisions on families. In my opinion, it is precisely because Geographical Mobility concentrates on family impacts, on experience and on both economic and non-economic factors that it is of particular relevance to housing researchers who are often deeply involved with such issues, especially with growing discussion surrounding the non-shelter as well as the shelter impacts of housing. Geographical Mobility: Family Impacts is a valuable book because it displays a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of geographical mobility. It is particularly valuable in addressing family experiences of mobility, an as yet under-examined area that requires further study. However, the value of this book stretches beyond the realm of mobility studies and it is also relevant to other fields such as human resource management, women’s studies and child psychology. It is also a particularly useful book for housing researchers, particularly those interested in non-shelter as well as shelter impacts of housing. Hazel Easthope University of Tasmania Australia