Kozel, Adryon;
(2025)
Constituting the Multiplanetary Subject:
Energies of Space Enthusiasm.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
This thesis presents an ethnographic account of space enthusiasm. The thesis approaches enthusiasm as a social energy, which is generated, circulated, and used to produce a subjectivity orientated around a vision for the future driven by humanity’s move to space. It explores how people become familiar with outer space as a realm of human sociality whilst it is geographically distant and as-yet largely unrealised. It examines how aspirations of becoming a multiplanetary species in the future impact how people conduct their lives now. Through a focus on enthusiasm, its role in maintaining and building dispersed communities, and how it is materialised and circulated, this thesis contributes directly to anthropological debates on community, material culture, and social energy as collective effervescence (Durkheim 2001 [1912]). Through the exhibition Archive Ad Astra, the thesis contributes to a collaborative, curatorial, and experimental methodology for anthropology. The multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork examines two influential (but overlapping) groups within the largely Euro-American space community. CosmicUs and analog astronauts both exert considerable influence on space community culture. CosmicUs builds and shapes community through Star Wars-inspired self-development courses and an annual, global Astronight party orientated around human spaceflight. In the emerging industry of space analogs (immersive simulated missions), analog astronauts train themselves for a multiplanetary future. Both communities harness and condense collective effervescence in events, places, people, and things, producing a relation to space which is made manageable, intimate, and useful. These practices of world making and transformation allow space and the future to be incorporated into and realised in the present on Earth through everyday and familiar social relations. Ethnographically tracing space enthusiasm through a sequence of scales, from large scale parties, conferences, and personal development groups, to the micro scale of people’s personal ‘space object’, the thesis examines the development of community, the self, and the body.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Constituting the Multiplanetary Subject: Energies of Space Enthusiasm |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Anthropology, enthusiasm, outer space |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10219351 |
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