Overview

Societies have always been formed in a relationship with the rest of the universe. With rapid developments in satellite communications and imaging, space exploration and tourism, military space technology, and cosmology itself, relationships with outer space are changing. These changes have inspired a wave of critical academic work in recent years, re-examining the history, present and future of outer space and the place of humans within it. This handbook provides an in-depth exploration of major themes relating to society, culture and the universe and will inspire and cultivate debate in this exciting and burgeoning area of study for future researchers and theorists. Bringing together scholarship from a range of disciplines including geography, economics, history, political science, sociology, philosophy, science and technology studies, law, cultural astronomy, anthropology, media studies, literature, psychosocial studies and art, it closely examines how outer space is socially produced, experienced, perceived and imagined, and the significance of this for terrestrial social life.

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9781349577057

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Reviews

The volume achieves its purpose of providing an in-depth exploration. It also inspires debate in a field of study that is expanding as humans close the gaps among society, culture, and outer space. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers and faculty; professionals. (R. I. Saltz, Choice, Vol. 54 (4), December, 2016)

“The volume achieves its purpose of providing an in-depth exploration. It also inspires debate in a field of study that is expanding as humans close the gaps among society, culture, and outer space. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers and faculty; professionals.” (R. I. Saltz, Choice, Vol. 54 (4), December, 2016)

Author Information

Peter Dickens is Visiting Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK. His main interests are in the relations between society and nature. Recent publications include Society and Nature (2004) and, with James Ormrod, Cosmic Society (2007). He continues work on the relations between society and the cosmos, with particular reference to the astronaut and visual cultures of outer space. He is a member of the Red-Green Study Group, London. James S. Ormrod is Principal Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Brighton, UK. Rooted in psychosocial theory, his research focuses on social movements and on the relationship humans have with their environment and with the universe more generally. He is the author of Fantasy and Social Movements (2014) and, with Peter Dickens, Cosmic Society (2007).

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