Launching Europe : an ethnography of European cooperation in space science /

Anthropologist Zabusky spent 11 months at the European Space Research and Technology Centre of the European Space Agency (ESA), gathering ethnographic data for a study of European cooperation in science and technology. One of the most successful of the European regional organizations, ESA has compiled an impressive record in placing scientific payloads in space with its reliable Ariane rockets. Zabusky examines the process by which scientists, engineers, and technicians from 13 European nations have managed to cooperate to achieve these results. She sees cooperation as a dynamic process, driven not only by the desire for technological success ("pragmatic cooperation") but also by a higher ideal ("sacred cooperation"). Even as they doubt the benefits of cooperation, the scientists and engineers of ESA are joined together in a common search for truth. Although useful to readers interested in the technological aspects of the European space program, this study will find its primary audience in individuals more comfortable with the writings of Emile Durkheim than the intricacies of space stations and platforms. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty. W. M. Leary University of Georgia