In light of recent developments in space exploration, this intervention engages with the relations between the planetary and the extra-planetary. Advocating for the explicit consideration of the latter in critical planetary thinking, the extra-planetary is conceptualised as imagined-and-real counter-space. As such, it is literally not for humans and certainly not for the very frontier expansionist and extractivist practices that have contributed to the socio-ecological crises on planet Earth.

The paper shows that the fight against COVID-19 has contributed in manifold ways to establishing the air as an object of imagination, concern and practice, generating novel ways of understanding it, of experiencing it and of acting on it. From this, a series of important insights are derived with regard to our understanding of the “air” as a realm of reality that is dramatically underplayed in socio-spatial theory.

This article systematically reviews how research within the Alpine Arc explores open spaces, their ecosystem services, and their role in spatial planning processes and land-use decision-making processes. Results show a research imbalance and a lack of solution statements for identified problems in Alpine research. Open spaces require safeguarding beyond regional borders and beyond spatial planning documents in a more proactive manner to ensure long-term quality of life within and beyond the Alps.

The article examines how asylum seekers in the Greek refugee camp Moria were barely kept alive through different technologies and actors taking part in the field. It also examines the political purpose of placing asylum seekers on the brink of death in European refugee camps.

The article presents conceptual contributions of geography to studies of futures. While the future is conceived as a temporal category, geographical perspectives highlight the role and relevance of space. The spatial dimension becomes evident in future-making practices such as imagination and anticipation, especially in the visualization of desirable futures. Future-making and geography-making are interdependent practices, which are articulated through the projection of imagined futures into space.