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Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 31, No. 5, 592-615 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0309132507081492
© 2007 SAGE Publications

Anti-Astropolitik — outer space and the orbit of geography

Fraser MacDonald

School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, fraserm{at}unimelb.edu.au

This paper aims to establish outer space as a mainstream concern of critical geography. More than half a century after humans first cast their instruments into orbit, contemporary human geography has been slow to explore the myriad connections that tie social life on Earth to the celestial realm. My starting point is a return to an early-modern geographical imagination that acknowledges the reciprocity between heaven and earth. Although other disciplinary engagements are discussed, this project represents the first systematic attempt to explore how outer space both challenges and reanimates the `geo' of geography. The example of Global Satellite Navigation Systems is used to illustrate what is currently at stake in the military contest for geopolitical control of Earth's orbit. Nigel Thrift's work on the technological refashioning of precognitive sociality is contextualized within those systems of state geopower that sustain the everyday uplinking and downlinking to and from space hardware. Lastly, the paper offers a critique of the application of classical geopolitics to outer space in the form of `astropolitics' and its will-to-power variant of Astropolitik.

Key Words: Astropolitik • geography • geopolitics • orbit • outer space • surveillance.


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