Description
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
About the Author
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).
Reviews
"These books could serve as a starting point from which to further develop this concept of aerial space and how it fits with or challenges other theories of space that are emerging in geography and the social sciences more broadly, such as those drawing on network and complexity theory." (The AAG Review of Books, 1 March 2014)
''Peter Adey is a clear, strong, inventive, unique voice in human geography. In Aerial Life, he brings together a fascinating set of theoretical concerns and empirical cases in his inimitable style, with a gravity of purpose and a lightness of touch that makes for an incredibly rich book.'-Mark B. Salter, University of Ottawa
'By extending critical human geography to the complex verticalities of airspace, Peter Adey offers a vitally important riposte to the long neglect of aerial cultural politics in the social sciences. Aerial Life is a brilliant tour de force. Incisive, comprehensive, fresh and, above all, topical - this is the book which can guide us as we address the geographies of the aerial.'
-Stephen Graham, Newcastle University
"He presents a compelling study of the processes involved in the social and psychological shaping of what he calls "the aerial subject." (Times Literary Supplement, 15 October 2010)
Book Information
ISBN 9781405182614
Author Peter Adey
Format Paperback
Page Count 296
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 435g
Dimensions(mm) 231mm * 155mm * 18mm