Project title

Above our heads

Research question

How does the new space race focussing on satellite technology influence our daily lives?

Project description

Every minute, thousands of satellites circle above our heads. They observe our cities, facilitate our communications and make it possible to track us everywhere we go. We have built a global surveillance machine that most of us never think about, but which increasingly determines everything from the price of bread to who gets bombed and whether you can take out insurance. This book reveals how satellite technology has created new power relations between those who look down and those who are being watched.

In “Above Our Heads”, we turn the gaze around and look at what satellites see, follow spy satellites and reconstruct how everyone is being tracked in everything they do. We also see who benefits from all these new observation, navigation and communication satellites and how space is being taken over by tech billionaires. This book therefore asks the question: ‘In a world where privacy is impossible and visibility is a currency, who benefits from seeing everything, and what does it cost the rest of us to be seen?’

Selected publications

Books

Articles