Abstract
Humanity’s relationship with outer space is a dynamic and evolving one. It has shifted from looking towards the skies in a purely cosmological sense, as the place of gods and omnipotence—a space parallel to but devoid of humanity—to seeing outer space as an idealised place of scientific possibilities for humanity, and finally, it has shifted to entering the physicality of what was once purely cosmological. The implications of a very rapidly humanising outer space merits study by sociologists and other disciplines well equipped to analyse the social and cultural implications of this monumental shift in human and technological activities. To explore this, the anthology The Palgrave Handbook of Society, Culture and Outer Space explores the ‘frontiers’ of humanity’s relationship with outer space; the social construction and production of outer space; the physical and conceptual spaces of outer space and the paradoxes of outer space.
It is important to remember that the academic study of outer space is a rather new field. Humans only entered outer space in the late 1957. And further, the study of outer space was mostly limited to the very strategic and bipolar Cold War Weltanschauung, championed by political scientists and international relations academics. The entrance of critical voices into the outer space literature really only began some twenty years ago and really took off only in the last ten years. Geography entered with MacDonald’s seminal 2007 article entitled ‘Anti-Astropolitik’. Sociology entered with the foundational two-part article entitled ‘Inaugural Essay: The Definition and Relevance of Astrosociology in the Twenty-first Century’ by Jim Pass. Palgrave’s Handbook reflects this increasing heterogeneity of the outer space literature, providing readers with articles written by academics representing film, psychology, English, physical geography, geopolitics, sociology and other fields in the arts and humanities, with a special emphasis on the social aspects of these fields.
This edited volume seeks to explore ‘how the social order is now being remade in relation to outer space’, and ‘expresses a concern with the implications of this process for social relations and individuals on Earth’. The Palgrave Handbook provides readers with the most up-to-date and sweeping compilation about society and outer space on the market. Spanning many disciplines in the humanities and arts, the volume is necessarily lacking in depth on any singular topic; however, what it lacks in depth it certainly makes up in scope, providing readers with as wide of a range of topics as it does disciplines.
The volume certainly lives up to its desire to express concern about the implications of the new social order of outer space. Tackling the militarisation, capitalisation and power structures of outer space, the volume comes at these issues from a variety of perspectives characteristic of the critical tradition: feminism, Marxism, science and technology studies and postcolonial studies among others.
The introduction of the volume begins by situating the entire anthology with Lefebvre and his theories on the production of space, a perfect thread tying the volume together for academics comfortable with the pre-eminent sociologist but perhaps intimidating for students and those less familiar with him. Using Lefebvre, the authors situate the volume as an exploration of the dialectical relationship humanity has with the liminal outer space, which is now, more than ever, a ‘confused space’. The authors then provide a short and ultimately unsatisfying historiography of the ‘new outer space’ in the context of Lefebvre, situating academics as key in exploring the ‘social context for, and impacts of, space exploration and development’. They provide an excellent summary academic literature on society and outer space in their review, touching upon seminal works in the vast array of disciplines the book presents in a way that truly provides readers with a sense of the increasing heterogeneity of literature on outer space. The final part of the introduction gives a considerable look into each of the chapters, giving the reader a preview of the authors’ arguments and attempting to situate the chapters into the work as a whole.
The book is organised into three parts, based on Lefebvre’s conceptual triad of the production of space. The authors admit that their organisational structure is not necessarily as seamless as they would have liked; however, it is understandable that attempting to herd such a wide array of disciplines, topics and theoretical approaches under one organisational umbrella would be a rather chimerical task. That said, the book’s Introduction and Conclusion do give the reader an incredible sense of the place, purpose and necessity of these wide-ranging chapters that critique a very loosely defined ‘outer space’.
Almost to the point of predictability, the volume has been curated perfectly to hit all of the critical points it is supposed to hit, which can either be a boon or a detriment according to what the reader desires from the work.
It is worth mentioning that this work does have a disproportionately heavy emphasis on the West. It focuses on Western space programmes (specifically the NASA and the UK space programmes); Western cinematography, art and literature; and Western hegemony in outer space. There is a scant mention or acknowledgement of the fact that there are decreasing national barriers to outer space and that non-Western countries such as India, China and Algeria are beginning to challenge the Western (and, to some extent, Russian) hegemonic dominance of outer space.
Neither for casual reading nor for a nubile mind, this compilation is suitable for academics interested in broadening their knowledge of critical outer space literature and for the interested student who already has a foundational knowledge of critical thought schools. The strength of this work lies in its ability to impart to its reader that traditional narrative and configuration of outer space merit analysis, and that there are many avenues for doing so. It is a fantastic launch pad for further study, and it provides readers with the most up-to-date compilation about critical outer space studies on the market.
The first part of the anthology, ‘Locating Outer Spatial Practices’, situates the first few chapters.
Lefevbre’s spatial practices are those things that make our lived reality and conceive of our lived reality in tandem; those things that produce and reproduce our lived spaces, deciphering them for us. Part I focuses on the geographic elements of outer space, capitalism in outer space and the socialisation and militarisation of outer space—a motley mélange of chapters that can loosely be corralled under the idea that these are things that make outer space.
The second part of Lefebvre’s triad, ‘Locating Representations of Outer Space, calls for looking at representations of space, and refers to the physical representations of space as created by planners and scientists. The chapters in the second part loosely coalesce around this idea, focusing more on the scientific and legal representations of outer space. The first two chapters cover scientific representations and narratives of outer space. They are followed by a chapter that uses actor–network theory to trace the enacted networks and representations of space science and concludes with a chapter on the legal representations of outer space from a critical geographic perspective.
In the third part, ‘Locating Outer Space as Representational Space’, and the final part of the triad, ‘Lefevbre’s representations of space refer to conceptualised space’—space as thought up and imagined. This last part of the book contains the most intellectually variegated collection of chapters, first looking at how society ‘makes’ astronomy, then it moves into a chapter calling for the establishment of modernisation of the field of inquiry around cosmological anthropology. There is then a chapter by Sean Redmond on the whiteness of different representations of cinematic outer space that is followed by a chapter looking at the different representations of extraterrestrial outer space in sci-fi novels. The volume then has a chapter from editor James Ormrod on the psychosocial fantasies that create representations of outer space and finishes with a chapter on contemporary art and outer space.
What this volume lacks in depth it certainly makes up in breadth. It is a perfect introduction to critical outer space literature for students comfortable with the critical tradition and for academics interested in widening their disciplinary scopes on the subject of outer space. The compilation’s editors, Peter Dickens and James Ormrod, are sociologists who have each focused on humanity’s relationship with outer space and on bringing their discipline more fully into the Final Frontier. With this volume, they also manage to herd a wide array of disciplines into a single platform that encourages further (and much needed) critical inquiry into the social production of outer space.