Description
Book SynopsisUtilizing environmental archival materials from the UK, State, Science and the Skies presents a groundbreaking historical account of the development of a state science of atmospheric pollution.
- Offers the most extensive historical and geographical account of atmospheric government and pollution in Britain, available today
- Presents archival material from 150 years of British history that represents an original contribution to our knowledge of the history of science and government
- Develops an innovative combination of Foucauldian history of government with a history of atmospheric science
- Raises crucial questions about the nature of state/science relations and the conditions under which environmental knowledge is produced
Trade Review“Mark Whitehead’s 2009 book State, Science and the Skies constitutes a compelling and important contribution to the RGS–IBG Book Series . . . This fascinating book is part of an increasing literature on a much neglected area of study: the role and importance of the atmosphere in our lives (e.g. Jankovic, 2000; Latour, 2003; Strauss and Orlove, 2003; Kessel, 2006; Thornes, 2008) . . . State, Science and the Skies should provide us with an important guide to the geographies of the atmosphere. It is especially helpful in order to cultivate some sense of relief to Sloterdijk’s (2009) emphasis on the air as a means of administering death through environmental means.” (Geoform, 1 September 2012)
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables.
Series Editors' Preface.
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
List of Abbreviations.
1 Introduction: Space, History and the Governing of Air Pollution.
2 Historical Geographies of Science and Government: Exploring the Apparatus of Atmospheric Knowledge Acquisition.
3 Science, Sight and the Optics of Air Government 37
4 Governing Air Conduct: Exhibition, Examination and the Cultivation of the Atmospheric Self.
5 Instrumentation and the Sites of Atmospheric Monitoring.
6 A National Census of the Air: Spatial Science, Calculation and the Geo-Coding of the Atmosphere.
7 Automating the Air: Atmospheric Simulations and Digital Beings.
8 Environmental Governmentalities and the Ecological Coding of the British Atmosphere.
9 Conclusion: Learning Like a State in an Age of Atmospheric Change.
Notes.
References.
Index.
