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Short abstract:

This talk explores how the politics of the present are shaped by how the future of space is envisioned. Linking work in STS, social studies of outer space, design & aerospace engineering, we develop an interdisciplinary, multi-sited ethnographic approach for studying Earth-Space assemblages.

Long abstract:

How do future visions of space shape forms of European integration in the present, and how, conversely, do geopolitical relations on Earth shape how and by whom these futures are imagined and inscribed in infrastructural processes? Using (controversies about) the joint European Ariane launcher as a case study, we explore how the politics of the present are shaped by how the future of space is envisioned and vice versa.

Methodologically, this speaks to longstanding questions in infrastructure studies, namely how to connect the different dimensions of a large-scale infrastructural project and describe their complex relations. However, what changes when such questions are extended to infrastructures that extend beyond Earth? ‘Following the rocket around’ to construction sites, policy conferences, foresight departments, and trade fairs, we aim to specify how the complex socio-political and spatial relations of European integration shape and are shaped by collective imaginations. To do so, we develop a novel interdisciplinary and multi-sited ethnographic approach that links work in STS, social studies of outer space, design, and aerospace engineering. In our talk, we will present initial findings from ongoing research, paying symmetrical attention to material and imaginative aspects of how the future is not only envisioned but concretized in building Ariane, how this generates new layers of spatial conceptualizations and might support the extension of potential Earth-Space assemblages.