Aerial Life: Spaces, Mobilities, Affects - Paperback

by Peter Adey (Author)

NOMINATED AND SHORT LISTED FOR THE SURVEILLANCE STUDIES BOOK PRIZE 2011

This theoretically informed research explores what the development and transformation of air travel has meant for societies and individuals.

• Brings together a number of interdisciplinary approaches towards the aeroplane and its relation to society
• Presents an original theory that our societies are aerial societies, or 'aerealities', and shows how we are both enabled and threatened by aerial mobility
• Features a series of detailed international case studies which map the history of aviation over the past century - from the promises of early flight, to World War II bombing campaigns, and to the rise of international terrorism today
• Demonstrates the transformational capacity of air transport to shape societies, bodies and individual identities
• Offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane are considered in the modern era
  

Back Jacket

Our lives are supported and carried by the aeroplane, and yet at the same time, they are haunted and threatened by it. This theoretically informed research explores what the development and transformation of air travel has meant for societies, individuals, and the status of human life itself. Author Peter Adey reveals the complex politics of this 'aereality', positioning it at the critical apex of political, cultural, and social relations.

Through a series of detailed international case studies, Adey traces the history of aviation over the past century, showing how the early promises of flight, symbolized and performed in the spectacular airshows at Hendon and Rheims, evolved into the devastating bombing campaigns of World War II and the rise of international terrorism. Along the way, we are shown how aerial mobilities may transform societies and subjects, shape individual rights and identities, and alter the very workings of the human body. Soaring beyond the concept of air travel as a metaphorical tool, Aerial Life offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane are considered in the modern era.

Author Biography

Peter Adey is Lecturer in Cultural Geography at Keele University, Staffordshire, England. His research interests include the study of mobility and cultures of aviation and security. Adey is the author of Mobility (2009).