Abstract
Scholarship in environmental political theory, and the environmental humanities more broadly, has mostly discussed the metaphor of Spaceship Earth as temporally bound—losing momentum by the mid-1970s. However, recent work has suggested a more nuanced narrative, where the legacy of the metaphor extends into the present. Building on this, I set out in this paper to think through the imaginary of Spaceship Earth as distinct from the metaphor. Engaging critically with the literature, I unpack the conceptual value of thinking in terms of imaginaries by drawing out the process by which ideas are transformed into imaginaries. Then, situated in the context of the Cold War research and development, I discuss the contributions of Buckminster Fuller, Kenneth Boulding, and Barbara Ward to the notion of Spaceship Earth, focusing on several distinctive features including the emphasis on world community, the use of (sub)nautical rhetoric, and the tensions between finite resources, interdependence, and Prometheanism. I argue that paying attention to these features of early notions of Spaceship Earth enable a better understanding of the imaginary as it unfolded after the “long 1960s.” Lastly, I conclude by discussing how this imaginary still figures in geoengineering initiatives and the space industry today. In articulating its contemporary role, I offer a set of coordinates for navigating the living tension between technology and environmental sustainability.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Economic, Social, and Cultural Context
KEYWORDS
Environmental Humanities, Political Theory, Imaginaries, Spaceship Earth, Geoengineering, Space Industry
