ABSTRACT
According to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, space is a place. It begins at the Kármán line, an invisible, largely arbitrary border 100 km above the Earth’s mean sea level. This conception of space—as a location, out there, beyond a specific altitude—is only one definition. Space also exists down on Earth as a social sphere or social category. Different individuals and groups have different conceptions of what space is, what it is for, and what it means to be in it. In this way, space in practice is a malleable, unsettled category that is contingent upon context and perspective. This chapter explores the importance of grappling with the multiple meanings of space even within a delimited fieldsite. Drawing on methodological reflections on ethnographic fieldwork in French Guiana and southern California, we illustrate how leaving “space” undefined or flexible helps bring to the fore divergent understandings of space on the ground. We discuss how this openness becomes an asset, especially for uncovering more subtle processes shaping the reception and direction of conventional space operations.
