Aerial Life
Spaces, Mobilities, Affects
RGS-IBG Book Series
1. Edition May 2010
296 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
NOMINATED AND SHORT LISTED FOR THE SURVEILLANCE STUDIES BOOK
PRIZE 2011!
This theoretically informed research explores what the
development and transformation of air travel has meant for
societies and individuals.
* Brings together a number of interdisciplinary approaches
towards the aeroplane and its relation to society
* Presents an original theory that our societies are aerial
societies, or 'aerealities', and shows how we are both enabled and
threatened by aerial mobility
* Features a series of detailed international case studies which
map the history of aviation over the past century - from the
promises of early flight, to World War II bombing campaigns, and to
the rise of international terrorism today
* Demonstrates the transformational capacity of air transport to
shape societies, bodies and individual identities
* Offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about
how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane are considered
in the modern era
Series Editors' Preface.
Acknowledgements.
1. Introduction.
Part I: Becoming Aerial.
2. Birth of the Aerial Body.
3. The Projection and Performance of Airspace.
Part II: Governing Aerial Life.
4. Aerial Views: Bodies, Borders and Biopolitics.
5. Profiling Machines.
Part III: Aerial Aggression.
6. Aerial Environments.
7. Subjects under Siege.
8. Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.
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
