(De)colonising the cosmos: exploring the political ecologies of NewSpace industries (Ref: RDF24/EE/GES/HOWSON)

The global space industry’s value reached £450 billion in 2022, having expanded 70% over the last 10 years. With the rapid outsourcing of launch capabilities to private companies, some forecasts expect the industry to reach £1 trillion in annual revenue by 2040 (Eriksson and Newlove-Eriksson, 2023). As well as promising to cut launch costs by 95% over the same period, privately developed missions to colonise outer-space are promoted as a hedge against existential threats, ensuring humanity’s long-term survival as a ‘multi-planetary species’ (MacAskill, 2022). Yet, how the benefits and risks of 'NewSpace' industries are to be distributed globally, remains unclear. 

There’s not much that’s new about NewSpace. The escalating effort to colonise the cosmos with private finance is a continuation of the same religious fervor and nationalist exceptionalism prompting earlier European scrambles for Africa and the Americas (Rubenstein, 2022). There will be no repeat of colonial genocides in space. But the social-technical imaginaries behind NewSpace developments must be contested if they perpetuate indigenous genocide, ecocide or otherwise destabilise social-ecological systems here on Earth.

As part of an ongoing investigation, we seek an intellectually ambitious researcher to help us understand the ways these imaginaries are manifesting in places. Your inductive research in these places will unpick the power asymmetries and inequitable distributions of benefits and risks from NewSpace industries. Candidates are invited to apply for the PhD position at Northumbria University, Newcastle to work under the supervision of Dr Peter Howson, Dr Oliver Hensengerth and Dr Paul Dolan. Our international collaborators include Professor Mary Jane Rubenstein (Wesleyan University, CT), Professor Kelly Richardson (University of Victoria, BC), and Dr Olivier Jutel (Otago University, NZ). Successful applicants will join a thriving intellectual community of scholars and practitioners across two Interdisciplinary Research Themes (IDRTs) at Northumbria: Space and Global Development Futures.

In setting out your proposal as part of the application process, applicants should explain where they wish to situate their research. We are particularly interested in proposals that feature in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the Scottish Highlands and Islands, French Guiana, and/or Southern United States. Your research would ideally be committed to furthering our ongoing research collaborations with indigenous/local communities in the field sites. These include the Warbon peoples of West Papua, the Maori of Waitaha, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and/or the Carrizo-Comecrudo peoples of Texas. New collaborations are also encouraged.

Your research should be rooted in the broad field of political ecology, which focuses on the often-hidden politics and economics that underlie human-nature relationships and result in particular forms of environmental management and environmental degradation. Political ecology interprets local human-nature interactions by drawing causal links between complex local stakeholder interests and the strategic plans of national and international actors. We expect our ideal candidate to explore the complex political ecologies of NewSpace as they relate to discussions of indigenous / non-positivist worldviews and the decolonisation of development. You will consider the complex distributions of benefits and risks from NewSpace developments as they intersect at various scales.

Space technologies are often framed as unproblematically good, enabling breakthrough understandings and fixes for human development and environmental science. This research will provide much needed critical engagement with these orthodoxies, whilst troubling the often longtermist motives of programme developers (Torres, 2023). By focusing on the political ecologies of NewSpace, rather than the technical challenges of exploiting and colonising space, the project seeks to make a major contribution to ensuring that NewSpace industries are driven by sound environmental management whilst facilitating equitable and empowering forms of development.

Academic Enquiries

This project is supervised by Peter Howson. For informal queries, please contact [Email Address Removed]. For all other enquiries relating to eligibility or application process please contact Admissions at [Email Address Removed]. 

Eligibility Requirements:

• Academic excellence i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities with preference for 1st class honours); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply if they are already a PhD or Professional Doctorate holder or if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.

To be classed as a Home student, candidates must:

• Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
• have settled status, or
• have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
• have indefinite leave to remain or enter.

If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classed as an International student. 

Applicants must be fully enrolled in the UK before stipend payments can commence and cover any additional costs that may be incurred, as these are not covered by the studentship:

• Immigration Health Surcharge https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application
• If you need to apply for a Student Visa to enter the UK, please refer to https://www.gov.uk/student-visa. It is important that you read this information carefully as it is your responsibility to ensure that you hold the correct funds required for your visa application, otherwise your visa may be refused.
• Costs associated with English Language requirements which may be required for students not having completed a first degree in English, will not be paid by the University.

APPLY HERE:

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/  

In your application, please include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words and the advert reference (e.g. RDF24/…).

Deadline for applications: 26 January 2024

Start date of course: 1 October 2024

Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our postgraduate research students. We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Leader, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme. We also hold the HR Excellence in Research award for implementing the concordat supporting the career Development of Researchers and are members of the Euraxess initiative to deliver information and support to professional researchers.