ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Shifting Narratives in Space Science and Technology (2)

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

This panel aims to encourage historical accounts of space science and technology that move beyond explanations centred on superpower rivalry during the Cold War. The purpose is to produce more inclusive and nuanced perspectives that address space science and technology as a broader historical and societal issue.
To date, almost all histories of space science and technology still perpetuate a US-centric perspective on how the Space Age is understood and what its place in history has been. This has left the impression that there is only one Space Age-one in which bipolar rivalry is seen as the main driver of space technology. Yet, while space science and technology emerged in the midst of the Cold War and their development has indeed been shaped by global security, big science and global capitalism, there remain countless sites to explore and histories to be written.
From artificial satellites to data centres, telescopes, launching sites and orbits; from scientists to miners, amateur networks, journalists and international organisations; from environmental to life, physical or astronomical sciences; from design and manufacture to launch, sharing and use –there exist a myriad of yet-to-be-explored historical accounts of space science and technology all over the world.
We present contributions that trace multiple and diverse trajectories, sites, actors, materialities, discourses and institutions that have been eclipsed by hegemonic space age historiography. The purpose is to better understand the role of space science and technology in shaping our societies.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Andrea Alvarez-Laorden, Institut d'Història de la Ciència

Individual Presentations

• From Semipalatinsk to Baikonur: The Earthly Myths of the Space Age - Saulesh Yessenova

• Contesting the View from Above: Europe, Africa and the Uneven Globalization of Satellite Data - Grigoris Panoutsopoulos, History of Science Institute, Autonomous University of Barcelona

• Meteorology, Media, and Nation-Building: Satellite Data in 1980s Catalonia - Anna Drou-Roget, Institut d'Història de la Ciència (IHC)

• Remote Sensing and the Contradictions of Surveillance in Latin America - Sebastián Díaz Ángel, History of Science Institute, Autonomous University of Barcelona

Session Organizers

• Gemma - Cirac-Claveras, Institut d'Història de la Ciència - UAB

• Hèctor Isern-Alsina, History of Science Institute, Autonomous University of Barcelona