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The establishment of an astronomy reserve around the core site of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope marks the beginning of an epochal shift away from commercial sheep farming in the upper Karoo. In this article, I reflect on the significance of this 'astronomy revolution' by exploring the ways in which land is central to dynamics of identification, shaping social hierarchies and development expectations. The article uses archival and ethnographic sources to explore the case of Carnarvon. It contextualises the current land-use change to astronomy in the social history of the town, addressing the set of events that marked an earlier epochal change: the transition from communal to commercial sheep farming, often called the 'merino revolution'. The history of land alienation accompanying this earlier transition resurfaces in current claims lodged through the post-apartheid land restitution programme, which intersect in complex ways with the current land-use change to astronomy. The article identifies a central tension in the 'astronomy revolution', which undermines claims to redress local historical inequalities while promoting identification with a broader national and global development priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article poses questions about astronomy and its local, national and global developmental impacts, drawing on ongoing research around the internationally networked Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope in South Africa. The relationship between progress in global science and technology and societal change has traditionally been framed through western-centric notions of progress imbued with universalism; the field of astronomy exemplifies this approach, with its assumptions of an inherently positive correlation between its science and loosely defined notions of 'development'. We problematise this assumption through an analysis of the multiple notions of development at different scales of analysis in the SKA. We argue that large astronomy projects such as the SKA are best understood as dense assemblages of science, infrastructure, human agency and politics, in which historically rooted local concerns are marginalised in the name of the national or global public interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]