Offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane a
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''Peter Adey is a clear, strong, inventive, unique voice in human geography. In Aerial Life, he brings together a fascinating set of theoretical concerns and empirical cases in his inimitable style, with a gravity of purpose and a lightness of touch that makes for an incredibly rich book.'
—Mark B. Salter, University of Ottawa ‘By extending critical human geography to the complex verticalities of airspace, Peter Adey offers a vitally important riposte to the long neglect of aerial cultural politics in the social sciences. Aerial Life is a brilliant tour de force. Incisive, comprehensive, fresh and, above all, topical - this is the book which can guide us as we address the geographies of the aerial.’
—Stephen Graham, Newcastle University
Table of Contents
Figures and Tables ix
Series Editors’ Preface x
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
Prologue 1
Overview 6
Aerial Life 8
Powering Up Aerial Geographies 13
The Organization of the Book 21
Part One Becoming Aerial 23
2 Birth of the Aerial Body 25
Introduction 25
Beginnings 28
‘Handsome Is as Handsome Does’: Disassembling the Aerial Body 30
The Flesh of the Aerial Youth 41
Simulation 45
Conclusion 52
3 The Projection and Performance of Airspace 54
Introduction 54
Building a Political Space: Identity, Boundedness and the Sanctity of Territory 57
Undoing Aerial Space: Post-nationalism and Projective Power 70
Conclusion 80
Part Two Governing Aerial Life 83
4 Aerial Views: Bodies, Borders and Biopolitics 85
Introduction 85
Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Targeting, Administering and Managing Populations 86
Techniques of the Observer/Observed 103
Three-Dimensional Vision 109
Conclusion 113
5 Profiling Machines 114
Introduction 114
Imagining the Pilot/Passenger 117
Sorting 124
Modifying 132
Conclusion 144
Part Three Aerial Aggression 145
6 Aerial Environments 147
Introduction 147
The Emergence of a Target 149
Systems, Circulations and Ecological Warfare 161
Air Conditioning 170
Conclusion 177
7 Subjects under Siege 179
Warning 179
Introduction 181
The Anatomy of Panic 185
Imaginations and Urgencies 189
Vigilance and the Social as Circuit 191
Entrainment 198
Conclusion 205
8 Conclusion 206
Environments 207
Futures 208
Aerial Turns 209
Notes 211
Bibliography 228
Index 255
