Why international space collaborations should be anticolonial

This paper synthesises and presents evidence from existing literature on how space projects and infrastructures built in the Global South have had – often unintended – negative impacts on local and Indigenous communities (Redfield 2000). The example of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in South Africa demonstrates that there are often competing priorities at play within space projects and that equitable practices must be at the heart of all space initiatives that aim to foster inclusive and just outcomes (Walker, Chinigo’ 2019). While dispossession due to space infrastructure has received recent scholarly attention, the ways in which the methods of scientific research reframe relationships and the sites of space research often remain invisible. This paper touches upon three areas where more equitable practices are needed to address historically crystallised asymmetries of power: 1) partnerships; 2) fieldwork; 3) approaches to science. I use Harding’s decolonial philosophies of science (2017) to instigate a dialogue with other disciplines and propose a change of practice in science. Fieldwork in analogue environments in Africa is used as an example of fostering collaborations and scientific endeavours that are actively anticolonial and combat the ways in which the Global North can be extractive in its approach to space projects on our planet. Can ethical frameworks be useful tools to appropriately consider the potential impacts of space projects and collaborations on local communities?