Otherwhere Ethnography: An Introduction to Outer Space Studies

What happens when contemporary space exploration outgrows Space Age modernity? In this volume, a collective of social scientists and humanities scholars provides an introduction to the emerging field of outer space studies. This is done by means of "otherwhere ethnography," richly detailed accounts of how space research and space enterprises are being rethought in an age where extraterrestrial exploration is no longer the monopoly of a handful of superpowers. While many off-Earth endeavours remain embedded within characteristically modern forms of thought--scientism, productivism, extractivism, (neo-)colonialism--there is also an emerging trend to move away from such ingrained conceptual frameworks. If one looks beyond the much-hyped projects of billionaire space gurus and their coterie of rocket-obsessed followers, one notices that Space Age modernity can also be thought otherwise, and that the very idea of "exploration" has already mutated into something else. Outer space studies can be envisaged as the antenna that seeks to capture this momentous, ongoing mutation.

Istvan Praet lectures anthropology at Durham University. Trained in social anthropology, he focuses on modern modes of knowledge, and on astrobiology more specifically. Astrobiology is the umbrella term for the endeavour to understand life at a cosmic level, and encompasses a wide spectrum of disciplines ranging from astronomy and microbiology to geochemistry and planetary science. His research is based on multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Western Europe and the US since 2010. It concentrates on how scientists involved in contemporary space exploration make the alien familiar and vice versa, and it shows how they remake objectivity itself in the process. He previously worked at Oxford, where he obtained his doctorate in 2006, Paris (Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale), Cambridge, and London (Roehampton).

Perig Pitrou is an anthropologist, and a CNRS senior researcher at the Maison Française d'Oxford. He coordinates the "Anthropology of Life" research team at the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale (Collège de France, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres). His recent work is situated at the interface between biotechnology and society; it connects biopolitics, ecologies of life, and science and technology studies. In recent years, he has focused on developing novel ways to link the space sciences with the social sciences and the humanities. With Charlotte Bigg, he is a principal researcher on the PEPR Origins project, a major, ANR-funded collaboration with astrobiologists, planetary scientists, and astronomers. Previously, he has carried out a long-term ethnographical investigation in Mexico to study the conceptions of life and wellbeing and the relations with the natural environment in Amerindian communities.