Dear colleagues,
<br>
<br>We invite you to participate in our panel ‘Infrastructuring Outer Space’
<br>(Panel No. 87) at the upcoming EASST/4S conference in Prague from 18 - 21st
<br>August 2020.
<br>
<br>Conveners:
<br>
<br>A.R.E. Taylor, University of Cambridge (aret2@cam.ac.uk)
<br>Nina Klimburg-Witjes, University of Vienna (nina.witjes@univie.ac.at)
<br>James Lawrence Merron, University of Basel (james.merron@unibas.ch)
<br>
<br>Abstract:
<br>
<br>87. Infrastructuring Outer Space
<br>
<br>Infrastructures play critical roles connecting and mediating planet Earth and
<br>outer space in multiple ways. Space infrastructures are often loaded with
<br>cultural meaning, national significance and corporate anticipation. They
<br>demand public investments and require expert knowledge. Ground stations and
<br>observatories are sites where time and distance collapse, enabling new
<br>conceptualisations of space, temporality and scale. It is in outer space that
<br>the vulnerability of infrastructure becomes readily apparent. Satellites and
<br>space stations now circulate in debris-ridden orbits. As well as being
<br>vulnerable to wear and damage, they are prone to failure and abandonment. As
<br>such, orbital infrastructures are objects of risk and disaster.
<br>
<br>This panel seeks to merge Infrastructure Studies with the rapidly growing
<br>field of social studies now exploring outer space. How might Infrastructure
<br>Studies' attention to material relations and process of (dis)connection help
<br>shape STS understandings of outer space? Conversely, what might an off-Earth
<br>perspective bring to STS analyses of infrastructure? We invite papers that
<br>ethnographically and theoretically explore the intersection between
<br>infrastructure and outer space. An STS and infrastructure-orientated approach
<br>to space infrastructure promises to open valuable horizons for building
<br>understandings of emerging extra-terrestrial worlds, reshaping understandings
<br>of existing worlds and addressing questions such as: What pasts, futures,
<br>imaginaries, power relations, promises and failures haunt or circulate around
<br>terrestrial and non-terrestrial space infrastructure? In what ways do space
<br>infrastructures complicate concepts of nation, space, place and placelessness?
<br>How might an infrastructure-orientated approach open up STS analyses of outer
<br>space to countries and actors outside of Euro-American contexts?
<br>
<br>The call for papers closes on 29 February 2020.
<br>
<br>Abstracts must be made via the online form that can be found by logging in
<br>with your 4S/EASST credentials here:
<br>https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ssss/prague20/
<br>
<br>After you log in, you should click the link ‘Submit A New Proposal’, then
<br>‘Papers For Open Panels’. Scroll down through the list of open panels
<br>until you find ‘Infrastructuring Outer Space’. After you click the panel
<br>title, you will be directed to the page where you can complete your
<br>submission.
<br>
<br>Submissions should consist of:
<br>A paper title (limit to fifteen words) - type the title as you would like it
<br>to appear in the Program. Please Use Title Case (that is, capitalise the first
<br>letter of each word).
<br>An abstract of 250 words maximum.
<br>From the drop-down box you must select at least one descriptor that best
<br>matches your area of STS scholarship.
<br>If you want, you can identify other potential panels with which your paper
<br>would fit in the event this panel does not go ahead or cannot accommodate your
<br>paper.
<br>The theme of EASST 2020 is 'Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and
<br>Agency of STS in Emerging Worlds'. To view all of the open panels, please
<br>click here. For more information about the conference in general, please click
<br>here.
<br>
<br>Inquiries are most welcome. Please CC all three of us into any email
<br>correspondence so that we can get back to you as swiftly as possible:
<br>aret2@cam.ac.uk; nina.witjes@univie.ac.at; james.merron@unibas.ch.
<br>
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