Professor Nick Dunn and Professor Tim Edensor have published their new book, Dark Skies: Places, Practices, Communities, with Routledge on 27 November 2023.

The publication marks a significant point in the academics’ continued research into dark skies and its wider relation to the arts and humanities. Dunn is Professor of Urban Design and Executive Director of Imagination, the design and architecture research lab at Lancaster University exploring the impacts of nocturnal activity on humans and non-humans. While Edensor is Professor of Social and Cultural Geography at the Institute of Place Management, Manchester Metropolitan University, exploring multiple fields including the various relationships of light and dark.

The publication is the culmination of many years of research and creative collaboration. Edensor and Dunn met while working at Manchester Metropolitan University and have also published Rethinking Darkness: Cultures, Histories and Practices (2021), along with a number of co-authored articles and projects.

Dark Skies addresses a significant gap in knowledge in relation to perspectives from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In providing a new multi- and interdisciplinary field of inquiry, this book brings together engagements with dark skies from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, empirical studies, and theoretical orientations, including the senses, creative engagement with the landscape, and non-human interactions.

Throughout history, the relationship with dark skies has generated a sense of wonder and awe, as well as providing the basis for important cultural meanings and spiritual beliefs. However, the connection to darks skies is now under threat due to the widespread growth of light pollution and the harmful impacts that this has upon humans, non-humans, and the planet we share. This book, therefore, examines the rich potential of dark skies and their relationships with place, communities, and practices to provide new insights and understandings on their importance for our world in an era of climate emergency and environmental degradation.

Dark Skies will be of interest to scholars, students, and professionals in geography, design, astronomy, anthropology, ecology, history, and public policy, as well as anyone who has an interest in how we can protect the night sky for the benefit of us all and the future generations to follow.

The book is Open Access and can be found here: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003408444

Find out more about protecting dark skies at DarkSky UK.