Societies have always been formed in a relationship with the rest of the universe. With rapid developments in satellite communications and imaging, space exploration and tourism, military space technology, and cosmology itself, relationships with outer space are changing. These changes have inspired a wave of critical academic work in recent years, re-examining the history, present and future of outer space and the place of humans within it.

This handbook provides an in-depth exploration of major themes relating to society, culture and the universe and will inspire and cultivate debate in this exciting and burgeoning area of study for future researchers and theorists. Bringing together scholarship from a range of disciplines including geography, economics, history, political science, sociology, philosophy, science and technology studies, law, cultural astronomy, anthropology, media studies, literature, psychosocial studies and art, it closely examines how outer space is socially produced, experienced, perceived and imagined, and the significance of this for terrestrial social life.

Peter Dickens is Visiting Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK. His main interests are in the relations between society and nature. Recent publications include Society and Nature (2004) and, with James Ormrod, Cosmic Society (2007). He continues work on the relations between society and the cosmos, with particular reference to the astronaut and visual cultures of outer space. He is a member of the Red-Green Study Group, London.

James S. Ormrod is Principal Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Brighton, UK. Rooted in psychosocial theory, his research focuses on social movements and on the relationship humans have with their environment and with the universe more generally. He is the author of Fantasy and Social Movements (2014) and, with Peter Dickens, Cosmic Society (2007).

1.Introduction. The Production of Outer Space; Peter Dickens and James S. Ormrod
2. Terrestrial Geographies in and of Outer Space; Jason Beery
3. Capitalism, Class and the Cosmos; Peter Dickens
4. Satellite Surveillance and Outer Space Capitalism: The Case of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates; Jocelyn Wills
5. The Meta-Geopolitics of Outer Space; Nayef Al-Rodhan
6. Cosmofeminism: Challenging Patriarchy in Outer Space; Chris Pesterfield
7. Dialectics, Society and Cosmology; Peter Mason
8. Narrating the Universe; Felicity Mellor
9. The Social Impacts of Space Science; Mark R. Johnson
10. Res Communis?: A Critical Legal Geography of Outer Space, Antarctica, and the Deep Seabed; Christy Collis
11. Snared Suns and Liberated Moons: Decoding Cryptic 'Astronomies' in Indigenous Cultures; Lionel Sims
12. Contemporary Cosmologies, Critical Re-Imaginings; Allen Abramson and Martin Holbraad
13. The Whiteness of Cinematic Outer Space; Sean Redmond
14. Seeking the Galactic Club: Fred Hoyle, Carl Sagan and the C/SETI Novell; De Witt Douglas Kilgore
15. Space Activism: A Psychosocial Approach; James S. Ormrod
16. Transmissions from the Noosphere: Contemporary Art and Outer Space; Nicola Triscott
17. Conclusion: The Future of Outer Space; Peter Dickens and James S. Ormrod