Work

Space in Common? Property, Waste and Their Colonial Lives in the Cosmos

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This article focuses on the politics of use and pollution (due to both light and debris) of the night sky as an environmental commons and discusses the fraught postcolonial dynamics of accessing and occupying orbits. It establishes a dialogue between the political ecology of space assets and the interdisciplinary critical tradition, unearthing the colonial legacies that structure environmental, sociolegal and political relations. This dialogue unveils that the idea of property is at the centre of the colonial matrix underpinning the cosmic expansion of capitalism. This territorial appropriation takes place through the interconnected actions of owning and discarding space objects. Space debris emerge as postcolonial remains, because the unequally distributed property of space objects and their pollution make up the present lives of colonialism in space.

Source: Theory Culture & Society

DOI: 10.1177/02632764261432882

Author: Alessandra Marino

Institution: The Open University

Language: English

Topic: Space exploration and regulation

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650

Funder: Research England