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Space Tourism, Capital, and Identity

James Ormrod (University of Brighton, United Kingdom)

Peter Dickens (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-496-6, eISBN: 978-1-78973-495-9

Publication date: 6 September 2019

Abstract

Space tourism is a rapidly growing sector of capital accumulation. As virtually all space on the Earth has been humanized and populated, outer space is being made by elite groups into the new exotic destination of choice. But the humanization of outer space also reinforces an ancient and powerful worldview concerning society’s relations with the cosmos. It relies on the idea that outer space is an apparently pure and serene “other” place offering a profound sense of awe, wonder, and renewed identity. This hegemonic view of the cosmos and society is a product of a new dominant social bloc, one incorporating pro-space activists, the aerospace industry, the tourism industry, and governments.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments – This chapter is based on a previous work, Chapter 5 Cosmic Society: Towards a Sociology of the Universe (Dickens & Ormrod, 2007). It is reproduced with the kind permission of Taylor & Francis. The authors would like to thank the editors for their comments on an earlier draft.

Citation

Ormrod, J. and Dickens, P. (2019), "Space Tourism, Capital, and Identity", Space Tourism (Tourism Social Science Series, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 223-244. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-504320190000025020

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited