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Un-Earthing STS: The Topological Quality of Cosmic Relations
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Anthropology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9273-5642
2026 (English)In: Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, E-ISSN 2413-8053, Vol. 12, p. 1-12Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Contemporary social inquiry into outer space often focuses on the extraterrestrial’s embeddedness in earthbound categories, politics, and socio-material relations. Space—and whatever is done to, in, or with it—is a figure that cannot but have recourse to Earth-as-ground. While this focus productively highlights the cultural tropes and sociopolitical processes by which human engagements with space are inevitably informed, emergent extraplanetary relations demand that we also investigate how terrestrial processes are continuously being “un-Earthed” and become other to themselves. This article draws on three examples to showcase the significance of a focus on Earth’s extraterrestrial-likeness: first, the growing reliance of ground-based infrastructures on space infrastructures, which renders terrestrial sociality vulnerable to space weather; second, how mission scientists and engineers, when operating their rovers, need to adjust their routines and practices according to the non-coeval temporality of Mars; and third, recent findings that the impact of human activity on polar ice sheets reverberates through to the planet’s rotation and movement vis-à-vis the Sun. As moments of explicitation, the examples reveal that the distance between Earth and the extraterrestrial can suddenly contract and expand, thus encouraging an STS approach that is able to attend to the topological quality of cosmic relations.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2026. Vol. 12, p. 1-12
National Category
Social Anthropology
Research subject
Social Anthropology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-257737DOI: 10.17351/ests2025.3017OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-257737DiVA, id: diva2:2087149
Available from: 2026-07-17 Created: 2026-07-17 Last updated: 2026-07-21Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
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  • Other style
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