Dark skies : meanings, challenges, and relationships

Edensor, Tim and Dunn, Nick (2023) Dark skies : meanings, challenges, and relationships. In: Dark Skies : Places, Practices, Communities. Routledge, London, pp. 3-31. ISBN 9781032528021

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Abstract

This chapter presents the underpinning argument of the book, focusing upon how meanings about dark skies have emerged and relationships them have evolved. In particular, the chapter responds to the significant gap in knowledge across the humanities and social sciences in relation to dark sky places. It explains the importance of new insights and understandings concerning dark skies and their relationships with place, communities, and practices. Contemporary views about darkness are complex and contradictory, despite the global onslaught of over-illumination and the malign social, health, environmental, and aesthetic effects this continues to perpetrate. Dark sky places, as we argue, are invariably situated and relational, and existing limited perspectives negate and ignore the far more subtle and important relationships that span histories, communities, cultural practices, sensory experiences, and creative engagements. By reframing the concepts and meanings associated with dark skies, we establish a more holistic yet variegated account of our relationships with the dark.