The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space
- Available for pre-order on June 19, 2023. Item will ship after July 10, 2023
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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space offers a state-of-the-art overview of contemporary social and cultural research on outer space. With over thirty contributions by leading researchers across a variety of disciplines, it explores the question of why and how to study outer space and provides scholars, practitioners and upper-level students with novel perspectives and critical interventions on a wide range of debates. Topics covered include:
- Critical social studies of space
- Space humanities
- Space imaginaries
- Space heritage
- Space technologies, systems, and infrastructures
- Colonialism and decolonisation
- Race and space
- Environmental justice and space activism
- Indigenous astronomical systems of Knowledge
- Afrofuturism; Indigenous Futurisms
- Contemporary space art
- Scientific communities
The volume reflects on the lineages of conceptualizations and studies of outer space and poses key questions about the crafting of futures in relation to space. In particular, the chapters address a range of themes, such as the study of the human body and consciousness; the various infrastructures, networks and systems that enable and sustain space exploration; the fundamental question of life in outer space both as it pertains to astrobiology, SETI, and the study of human health in spaceflight. Ultimately, the handbook is a call to attend more carefully to the ways in which we engage critically with outer space, both empirically, affectively and theoretically, while characterizing current research practices and outlining future research agendas.
Table of Contents
1. Social Studies of Outer Space: Pluriversal Articulations
Juan Francisco Salazar and Alice Gorman
Part 1: Fields
2. Trilogie Terrestre
Frédérique Aït-Touati and Bruno Latour
3. Refielding in More-Than-Terran Spaces
Valerie A. Olson
4. Space and Time Through Material Culture: An Account of Space Archaeology
Alice Gorman
5. Anthropology and Contemporary Space Exploration, with a Note on Hopi Ladders
Istvan Praet
6. Planetary Ethnography in a "SpaceX Village": History, Borders, and the Work of "Beyond"
Anna Szolucha
7. The Spaces of Outer Space
Oliver Dunnett
8. Sociological Approaches to Outer Space
Paola Castaño and Álvaro Santana-Acuña
9. Space Ethics
Tony Milligan and James S. J. Schwartz
10. Other Worlds, Other Views: Contemporary Artists and Space Exploration
Nicola Triscott
Part 2: Intersections and Interventions
11. As Above, So Below: Space and Race in the Space Race
Black Quantum Futurism (Rasheedah Phillips and Camae Ayewa)
12. A Chronopolitics of Outer Space: A Poetics of Tomorrowing
Juan Francisco Salazar
13. Feminist Approaches to Outer Space: Engagements with Technology, Labour, and Environment
Réka Patrícia Gál and Eleanor S. Armstrong
14. The Iconography of the Astronaut as a Critical Enquiry of Space Law
Saskia Vermeylen
15. Diversity in Space
Evie Kendal
16. Mare Incognito: Live Performance Art Linking Sleep with the Cosmos through Radio Waves
Daniela de Paulis, Thomas Moynihan, Alejandro Ezquerro-Nassar, and Fabian Schmidt
Part 3: Colonial Histories and Decolonial Futures
17. Celestial Relations with and as Milŋiyawuy, the Milky Way, the River of Stars
Bawaka Country, including Dr L. Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, et al.
18. Coloniality and the Cosmos
Natalie B. Treviño
19. Safeguarding Indigenous Sky Rights from Colonial Exploitation
Karlie Noon, Krystal De Napoli, Peter Swanton, et al.
20. Anishinaabeg in Space
Deondre Smiles
21. Earthless Astronomy, Landless Datasets, and the Mining of the Future
Katheryn M. Detwiler
22. Reconstellating Astroenvironmentalism: Borders, Parks, and Other Cosmic Imaginaries
Alessandra Marino
23. Divergent Extraterrestrial Worlds: Navigating Cosmo-practices on Two Mountaintops in Thailand
Lauren Reid
Part 4: Objects, Infrastructures, Networks, and Systems
24. Glitch in Space
Juan Francisco Salazar
25. Preparing for the "Internet Apocalypse": Data Centres and the Space Weather Threat
A. R. E. Taylor
26. Space Infrastructures and Networks of Control and Care
Katarina Damjanov
27. Mexico Dreams of Satellites
Anne W. Johnson
28. Space Codes: The Astronaut and the Architect
Fred Scharmen
Part 5: Cultures in Orbit/Life in Space
29. Cosmic Waters
Julie Patarin-Jossec
30. Unearthing Biosphere 2, Biosphere 2 as Un·Earthing
Ralo Mayer
31. Living and Working in "The Great Outdoors": Astronautics as Everyday Work in NASA’s Skylab Programme
Phillip Brooker and Wes Sharrock
32. Adapting to Space: The International Space Station Archaeological Project
Justin St. P. Walsh
33. An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: The International Space Station
David Jeevendrampillai, Victor Buchli, Aaron Parkhurst, et al.
34. Plant Biologists and the International Space Station: Institutionalising a Scientific Community
Paola Castaño
35. Whiteboards, Dancing, Origami, Debate: The Importance of Practical Wisdom for Astrophysicists and Instrument Scientists
Fionagh Thomson
36. Understanding the Question of Whether to Message Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Chelsea Haramia
37. Astrobiology and the Immanence of Life amidst Uncertainty
Dana Burton
38. A Post-Geocentric Gravitography of Human Culture
Alice Gorman
Editor(s)
Biography
Juan Francisco Salazar is a researcher and documentary filmmaker. He is Professor of Communications, Media and Environment at Western Sydney University, Australia.
Alice Gorman is an archaeologist and heritage consultant. She is an Associate Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Reviews
It’s rare that one sees a handbook about humanity’s relationship with, and activities in outer space, that goes beyond a few widely discussed themes focussed on science, technology, economics, law or geopolitics. Yet, as this unique collection of different perspectives clearly shows, space is so multi-faceted and touches every person on the planet. To see in one book the many other diverse ‘voices’ on space – from indigenous, to anthropological, to spiritual, to archaeological, to aesthetic, just to name a few – allows us to begin to comprehend the true ‘wonder’ of space and recalibrate our thinking about our responsibilities to respect and protect space for the future generations. A wonderful book co-edited by two amazing thought leaders about the future of humanity and its place in the galaxy around us.
Emeritus Professor Steven Freeland
Western Sydney University & Bond University
Vice-Chair of UNCOPUOS Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities