Astro-Value: Contested Attention Economies of Astronomical Knowledge

Abstract (English)

Astrophysical observatories simultaneously depend on and generate competing attention economies and new orders of worth. This paper introduces "astro-value" as an analytical framework that integrates political ecology with attention anthropology and theories of non-human labor. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork at Kazakhstan’s observatories, historical document research, and interviews with Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute astronomers, we examine diverse mediating agents. We will explore the how Tian-Shan mountain flora from Soviet Mars analog studies, light pollution, bureaucratic infrastructures, and meteor shower tourism direct or disrupt attention. How these entities mediate translation of cosmic processes into scientific objects and the accumulation of astro-value—manifested as data, state funding, or capital. Finally, we will situate these dynamics within broader networks of knowledge production, revealing how Soviet scientific legacies intersect with market imperatives and state policies in contemporary Central Asian astronomy. The paper demonstrates how astronomical observation requires negotiating complex value regimes across scientific, political, and economic domains.