Our lives are supported and carried by the aeroplane, and yet at the same time, they are haunted and threatened by it. This theoretically informed research explores what the development and transformation of air travel has meant for societies, individuals, and the status of human life itself. Author Peter Adey reveals the complex politics of this 'aereality', positioning it at the critical apex of political, cultural, and social relations.

List of Figures and Tables. Series Editors' Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction. Prologue. Aerial Life. Powering Up Aerial Geographies. The Organization of the Book. Part I: Becoming Aerial. 2. Birth of the Aerial Body. Introduction. Beginnings. 'Handsome Is as Handsome Does': Disassembling the Aerial Body. The Flesh of the Aerial Youth. Simulation. Conclusion. 3. The Projection and Performance of Airspace. Introduction. Building a Political Space: Identity, Boundedness and the Sanctity of Territory. Undoing Aerial Space: Post-nationalism and Projective Power. Conclusion. Part II: Governing Aerial Life. 4. Aerial Views: Bodies, Borders and Biopolitics. Introduction. Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Targeting, Administering and Managing Populations. Techniques of the Observer/Observed. Three-Dimensional Vision. Conclusion. 5. Profiling Machines. Introduction. Imagining the Pilot/Passenger. Sorting. Modifying. Conclusion. Part III: Aerial Aggression. 6. Aerial Environments. Introduction. The Emergence of a Target. Systems, Circulations and Ecological Warfare. Air Conditioning. Conclusion. 7. Subjects under Siege. Warning. Introduction. The Anatomy of Panic. Imaginations and Urgencies. Vigilance and the Social as Circuit. Entrainment. Conclusion. 8. Conclusion. Environments. Futures. Aerial Turns. Notes. Bibliography. Index.