STEM Wars: winning hearts and minds for private sector ‘NewSpace’ industries  

This paper argues that space-related STEM initiatives are forming part of a calculative neoliberal governance strategy to promote desirable conduct and manage resistance to private sector space developments. The paper positions NewSpace as a new form of power and knowledge, with STEM education constituting part of a regime of practices used to govern human activities in space in the interests of private corporations. This governance strategy is discussed through three interrelated STEM objectives, including 1) education and inclusion, 2) employability, and 3) encouraging local economic development. In doing so, the paper considers how NewSpace-related STEM programmes are used to ‘colonise the future’: asserting a libertarian capitalist vision for humanity in space whilst legitimising speculative activities here on Earth. In promoting such agendas, local curricular and pedagogical practices, I argue, may become more influenced by these powerful economic interests rather than wider concerns for the public good.