Space and the planet: taking the extra-planetary seriously in planetary thinking
<p>In light of recent developments in space technology, services and commercialisation, human geographers have started to consider space exploration and extractivism as areas of critical concern. A debate that has not yet fully embraced the extra-planetary, however, is that on planetary thinki...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Copernicus Publications
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Geographica Helvetica |
| Online Access: | https://gh.copernicus.org/articles/80/241/2025/gh-80-241-2025.pdf |
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| Summary: | <p>In light of recent developments in space technology, services and commercialisation, human geographers have started to consider space exploration and extractivism as areas of critical concern. A debate that has not yet fully embraced the extra-planetary, however, is that on planetary thinking, in which scholarship has to bracket out the space environment to some extent in that it represents a mere distraction from the actually important terrestrial crises. Against such a background, the present intervention engages with the relations between the planetary and the extra-planetary, advocating explicit consideration of the latter in critical planetary thinking – notably not as a diversion from but rather as a reinforcement of the need to engage with earthly concerns. To elaborate its argument, the text first reconstructs the disregard of the extra-planetary in planetary thinking by revisiting two books that have shaped the contours of the related debate: Bruno Latour's <i>Down to Earth</i> and Donna Haraway's <i>Staying with the Trouble</i>. It then critically reflects on “Humans on Mars”, a publicly funded research initiative at Bremen University which justifies an expansionist agenda by adopting a planetary mindset, or at least planetary rhetoric. Conceptualising the extra-planetary as imagined-and-real counter-space, planetary scholars are finally being called upon to connect with off-Earth ecosystems, weaving their non-human and more-than-human components into a cosmopolitical ethics of care and responsibility. At the same time, a <i>rupture pratique</i> is suggested which, in turn, designates the extra-planetary as a space in which there is literally no room for humans and certainly not for the very frontier expansionist and extractivist practices that have resulted in socio-ecological crises on planet Earth.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 0016-7312 2194-8798 |