Grounded: Perpetual Flight . . . and Then the Pandemic considers the time leading up the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ensuing global plummet in commercial flight. Mobility studies scholar Christopher Schaberg tours the newly opened airport terminal outside of New Orleans (MSY) in late 2019, and goes on to survey the broad cultural landscape of empty airports and grounded planes in the early months of the coronavirus’s spread, in 2020. The book culminates in a reflection on the future of air travel—what may unfold, and what parts of commercial flight are almost certainly relics of the past. Grounded blends journalistic reportage with cultural theory and philosophical inquiry, in order to offer graspable insights as well as a stinging critique of contemporary air travel.
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