AWOKAZ · Astrovalues of Work at the Observatories in Kazakhstan

Space exploration is driven by work and values. AWOKAZ investigates the role of work and values in creating, maintaining and disrupting social relations in and around the observatories and laboratories of the Fesenkov Institute of Astrophysics (FAI) in Kazakhstan. The research aim of AWOKAZ is to advance understanding of how astronomers, herders and tourist guides value and construct their lives in relation to space and space research infrastructures. ""Astrovalues"" in this research are the multifaceted economic, imaginative and moral forces that motivate actors' everyday practices of engagement with cosmic events and processes. These diverse forms of engagement include, but are not limited to, scientific passions of abstraction, touristic forms of commodification and consumption of the night sky, and various relations to the stars as guides or mythological figures. The project will provide a robust analysis of how the work of astronomers, guides and shepherds is mediated by the economic forces of the free market as well as the moral socio-cultural values of relating to cosmic processes. AWOKAZ will focus on the histories, contemporary practices and biographical trajectories of the astronomers, tour guides and shepherds who live and work in or around the astrophysical observatories of the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute (FAI).""