Human Geographies of Outer Space

Human geographies of outer space encompass a burgeoning body of social science and humanities scholarship exploring the application of geographical perspectives, concepts, and approaches through the study of outer space, human–outer space relations, and space travel. Humanity’s engagement with outer space has everyday effects, spanning the way we act and interact with each other here on Earth—how we live with other species, and our imagined landscapes and futures. In the last decade or so, a growing number of geographers have explored these themes. However, the emergence of geographies of outer space must be understood as an innately interdisciplinary endeavor, inspired by, and inspiring, wider social science engagements with outer space. For this reason, in this guide work is included that has been published by geographers within and outside geography departments and centers, as well as those located in allied fields, particularly sociology, anthropology and organization studies. These interdisciplinary engagements are necessarily wide-ranging—in terms of their: (i) empirical objects of analyses, (ii) purpose, and (iii) theoretical influences. Empirical engagements encompass: off-world mining, astropolitics, space art, space tourism, astronomy, space-themed toys, moon landings, orbital work practices, space law and much more. In terms of purpose, although a great deal of published work consists of critiques of imperialist-nationalistic-capitalistic space activities and imaginaries, research has also increasingly sought to advance alternative, more socially inclusive visions of outer space. Geographies of outer space are also theoretically diverse, informed by David Harvey’s critique of capitalism through Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of smooth/striated space to Peter Sloterdyk’s theorization of spaces of containment. However, despite this diversity, research remains predominately Western; this is despite the longstanding presence of Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Indian space hardware and millennia of non-Western cosmographies. While this focus may partly stem from the lack of availability of research materials, it remains a challengeable trend. Nonetheless, geographical studies of outer space have certainly explored critical questions of power that are mostly absent in popular and technoscientific framings of outer space—namely, whose interests and agendas do human activities in space serve? How can outer space help us understand how to live on Earth with other peoples and species? And what futures will space activities open up or close down? These questions open up new horizons of geographical inquiry, while also returning geography to its early cosmographical origins.