{"title":"From the Sky to the Ground: Indigenous Peoples in an Age of Space Expansion","authors":"Tony Milligan","doi":"10.1016/j.spacepol.2022.101520","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper will argue that there are pragmatic reasons to further cooperation between Indigenous peoples and space agencies, exemplified by Navajo-NASA cooperation. These pragmatic reasons rest upon an argument from belonging: space expansion involves a series of multi-generation projects. The significance of our contributions to these project will depend upon the actions of other generations who are unlikely to accept goals which are idiosyncratic, rather than drawing upon some deeper human concern with space. Such concern can be informed through Indigenous inclusion. The paper will remain officially neutral about a broader range of discourses concerning land rights, sovereignty, and attempts to situate dissent as resistance to colonial settler states. It will, however, presuppose a broad sympathy with Indigenous predicaments and group survival. The approach will be pragmatic in the sense that three nonarbitrary constraints/adequacy conditions will have to be met: (i) the overall approach must be geared to policy discussions rather than counterculture; (ii) Indigenous knowledge must be acknowledged as more than ecological, in order to be relevant to the matter at hand; and (iii) the practical role assigned to Indigenous peoples must be significant and distinctive. The overall aim is to explain that there is at least one important practical advantage of extending and deepening Indigenous inclusion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":45924,"journal":{"name":"Space Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Space Policy","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265964622000467","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
This paper will argue that there are pragmatic reasons to further cooperation between Indigenous peoples and space agencies, exemplified by Navajo-NASA cooperation. These pragmatic reasons rest upon an argument from belonging: space expansion involves a series of multi-generation projects. The significance of our contributions to these project will depend upon the actions of other generations who are unlikely to accept goals which are idiosyncratic, rather than drawing upon some deeper human concern with space. Such concern can be informed through Indigenous inclusion. The paper will remain officially neutral about a broader range of discourses concerning land rights, sovereignty, and attempts to situate dissent as resistance to colonial settler states. It will, however, presuppose a broad sympathy with Indigenous predicaments and group survival. The approach will be pragmatic in the sense that three nonarbitrary constraints/adequacy conditions will have to be met: (i) the overall approach must be geared to policy discussions rather than counterculture; (ii) Indigenous knowledge must be acknowledged as more than ecological, in order to be relevant to the matter at hand; and (iii) the practical role assigned to Indigenous peoples must be significant and distinctive. The overall aim is to explain that there is at least one important practical advantage of extending and deepening Indigenous inclusion.
期刊介绍:
Space Policy is an international, interdisciplinary journal which draws on the fields of international relations, economics, history, aerospace studies, security studies, development studies, political science and ethics to provide discussion and analysis of space activities in their political, economic, industrial, legal, cultural and social contexts. Alongside full-length papers, which are subject to a double-blind peer review system, the journal publishes opinion pieces, case studies and short reports and, in so doing, it aims to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions and a means by which authors can alert policy makers and international organizations to their views. Space Policy is also a journal of record, reproducing, in whole or part, official documents such as treaties, space agency plans or government reports relevant to the space community. Views expressed in the journal are not necessarily those of the editors or members of the editorial board.