Aerial Life: Spaces, Mobilities, Affects

Our lives are supported and carried by the aeroplane, and yet at the same time, they are haunted and threatened by it. This theoretically informed research explores what the development and transformation of air travel has meant for societies, individuals, and the status of human life itself. Author Peter Adey reveals the complex politics of this ′aereality′, positioning it at the critical apex of political, cultural, and social relations.
Through a series of detailed international case studies, Adey traces the history of aviation over the past century, showing how the early promises of flight, symbolized and performed in the spectacular airshows at Hendon and Rheims, evolved into the devastating bombing campaigns of World War II and the rise of international terrorism. Along the way, we are shown how aerial mobilities may transform societies and subjects, shape individual rights and identities, and alter the very workings of the human body. Soaring beyond the concept of air travel as a metaphorical tool, Aerial Life offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane are considered in the modern era.

Spis treści:
List of Figures and Tables.
Series Editors′ Preface.
Acknowledgements.
1. Introduction.
Prologue.
Aerial Life.
Powering Up Aerial Geographies.
The Organization of the Book.
Part I: Becoming Aerial.
2. Birth of the Aerial Body.
Introduction.
Beginnings.
′Handsome Is as Handsome Does′: Disassembling the Aerial Body.
The Flesh of the Aerial Youth.
Simulation.
Conclusion.
3. The Projection and Performance of Airspace.
Introduction.
Building a Political Space: Identity, Boundedness and the Sanctity of Territory.
Undoing Aerial Space: Post–nationalism and Projective Power.
Conclusion.
Part II: Governing Aerial Life.
4. Aerial Views : Bodies, Borders and Biopolitics.
Introduction.
Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Targeting, Administering and Managing
Populations.
Techniques of the Observer/Observed.
Three–Dimensional Vision.
Conclusion.
5. Profiling Machines.
Introduction.
Imagining the Pilot/Passenger.
Sorting.
Modifying.
Conclusion.
Part III: Aerial Aggression.
6. Aerial Environments.
Introduction.
The Emergence of a Target.
Systems, Circulations and Ecological Warfare.
Air Conditioning.
Conclusion.
7. Subjects under Siege.
Warning.
Introduction.
The Anatomy of Panic.
Imaginations and Urgencies.
Vigilance and the Social as Circuit.
Entrainment.
Conclusion.
8. Conclusion.
Environments.
Futures.
Aerial Turns.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.

Nota biograficzna:
Peter Adey is Lecturer in Cultural Geography at Keele University, Staffordshire, England. His research interests include the study of mobility and cultures of aviation and security. Adey is the author of Mobility (2009).

Okładka tylna:
Our lives are supported and carried by the aeroplane, and yet at the same time, they are haunted and threatened by it. This theoretically informed research explores what the development and transformation of air travel has meant for societies, individuals, and the status of human life itself. Author Peter Adey reveals the complex politics of this ′aereality′, positioning it at the critical apex of political, cultural, and social relations.
Through a series of detailed international case studies, Adey traces the history of aviation over the past century, showing how the early promises of flight, symbolized and performed in the spectacular airshows at Hendon and Rheims, evolved into the devastating bombing campaigns of World War II and the rise of international terrorism. Along the way, we are shown how aerial mobilities may transform societies and subjects, shape individual rights and identities, and alter the very workings of the human body. Soaring beyond the concept of air travel as a metaphorical tool, Aerial Life offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane are considered in the modern era.