Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space

<p>The <i>Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space </i>offers state-of-the-art overview of contemporary social and cultural research on outer space. International in scope the thirty-eight contributions by over fifty leading researchers and artists across a variety of disciplines and fields of knowledge present a range of debates and pose key questions about the crafting of futures in relation to outer space. The <em>Handbook</em> is a call to attend more carefully to engagements with outer space empirically affectively and theoretically while characterizing current research practices and outlining future research agendas. This recalibration opens profound questions of intersectional politics race equity and environmental justice around the contested topics of space exploration and life off-Earth. Among the many themes included in the volume are the various infrastructures networks and systems that enable and sustain space exploration; space heritage; the ethics of outer space; social and environmental justice; fundamental debates about life in outer space as it pertains to both astrobiology and SETI; the study of scientific communities; the human body and consciousness; Indigenous astronomical systems of Knowledge; contemporary space art; and ongoing critical interventions to overcome the legacies of colonialism and dismantle hegemonic narratives of outer space.</p>