| Abstrakt: |
As we move beyond the fiftieth anniversary of the dawn of the space age, a curious question looms in the background. Why has the discipline of sociology, and the other social sciences, formally ignored the study of social, cultural, and behavioral patterns related to space exploration (i.e., astrosocial phenomena)? There is a void, reminiscent of the false view of outer space as an empty vacuum, represented by sociology’s failure to focus on outer space issues. The attempt to develop astrosociology as a reaction to this long-term reality initially met with some resistance and even ridicule. Simultaneously, however, the support for this new multidisciplinary social science field has grown more intense since the field’s inception. As this author was trained as a sociologist, this essay concentrates on the sociological discipline’s failure to recognize the void. Other types of social scientists can describe the realities of their own disciplines more accurately. In the present case, the study of astrosocial phenomena exists in unorganized forms within sociology and more notably external to it within the space community. Because most astrosocial phenomena presently exist in terrestrial environments, their ramifications for space-capable societies continue to manifest themselves in significant ways. This article addresses some of the issues related to the continued development of astrosociology and the benefits of doing so, using the important example of social problems as the focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
