Space exploration and the imaginaries of living in a climate-changing world

Over the years, space exploration has proved to possess an extraordinary potential for changing environmental perspectives on Earth. However, this ability of space to create new relationships with our own planet and to inspire narratives of environmental conservationism and climate action is undergoing a major transformation as a few spacefaring nations and commercial entities are unveiling plans to exploit extraterrestrial resources and set up space settlements. Today's space exploration is very likely to stimulate technological inventions and new ways of thinking about, relating to and acting on the climate crisis on Earth. It is also generating new imaginaries of climate change and resource extraction on other planets which could help humans become "a multi-planetary species". The cultural and sociotechnical assumptions underpinning current space endeavours are likely to shape social and environmental relations for years to come and enhance or hinder new possibilities for tackling climate change. However, we know little about how the current wave of space exploration is being culturally and socially produced and with what effects. In this article, the main premises and questions of my new research are introduced. The project explores the changing imaginaries of living from an anthropological perspective. It also uses ethnographic methods to study how three main groups of stakeholders across all continents (space scientists, activists and communities living in the vicinity of space installations) imagine life and living in the challenging environmental conditions of this and other worlds. Our new research focuses on climate change and resource extraction to analyse how people make sense of unfamiliar worlds and whether learning about these worlds can reshape how they think about their immediate environments. To accomplish this, it also develops a new ethnographic tool of "planetary ethnography

Human settlement · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life

• No Planet B

  Open Access•Shaozeng Zhang, Zhuo Chen•Antropologia Portuguesa•2023

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• A Tale of Two Gulfs

  Open Access•Michael Watts•American Quarterly•2012

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• Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand

  Max Gluckman•Bantu Studies•1940

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• Beyond the Anthropocene

  Open Access•Valerie Olson, Lisa Messeri•Environment and Society•2015

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• Relational Space

  Open Access•Debbora Battaglia, D Valentine et al.•Cultural Anthropology•2015

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• Introduction

  Tanya Richardson, Gisa Weszkalnys•Anthropological Quarterly•2014

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• Extreme

  D Valentine, Valerie A Olson et al.•Anthropological Quarterly•2012

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• Offshore work

  Open Access•Hannah Appel•American Ethnologist•2012

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