Geopolitics in 4D! Understanding the Subterranean and Orbital Dimensions of Political Struggles - Monthly Lecture with Julie Michelle Klinger

Protests in the streets, policy-(un)making in offices, and radical changes in the relative freedom of movement of different groups of people are generally considered to be terrestrial affairs. Yet these are often directly and indirectly shaped by access to and power within space-based and space-linked technological systems. These technological systems rely on hardware, and hardware is made of raw materials wrested from the Earth by human labor and their automated proxies. Therefore, subterranean spaces, and the political economies that dictate power and privilege in relation to them, are always also part of political struggles unfolding on the surface. Based on research carried out during her fellowship term at the IWM and informed by longer-term research on four continents, Julie Klinger’s talk presents a framework and several illustrative examples for 4D geopolitics.

Julie Michelle Klinger is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware. She has published numerous articles on rare earth elements, natural resource use, environmental politics, and outer space, including the award-winning 2018 book Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes published by Cornell University Press. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley.

IWM Rector Misha Glenny will introduce the lecture and moderate the subsequent discussion.