Ocean Justice and the Blue Economy is a collaborative and transdisciplinary research project working to foster a fair and just blue economy. Our research aims to co-produce alternative knowledge of ocean justice in relation to the blue economy with coastal communities. In doing so, this research fills a knowledge gap about communities’ understanding of ocean justice.
We strive to investigate how ocean justice is understood by coastal communities in our three focus countries including Indonesia, Scotland, Seychelles, and explore what commonalities and difference exist between these socio-culturally different case-studies.
This project will use innovative and participatory methodologies, such as photovoice, which gives communities a tool to document their own experience with the topic to better understand the concept and practice of ocean justice. By using inclusive methodologies to better understand the concept and practice of ocean justice, we ensure that traditionally overlooked stakeholders, such as Indigenous Peoples and local communities, small-scale fishers, women and children, are at the centre of the process.
Our Vision
Fair and just blue economy that places coastal communities at the centre of the process.
Our Mission
We bring together coastal communities to shape a better understanding of concept and practice of ocean justice and the blue economy.
Why we do our research
Ocean space has traditionally been ignored by most social sciences. Despite an increased interest in the past 15 years has resulted in further research and academic publications on the human geography on the marine environment and on ocean governance and policy, blue economy remains an ambiguous and contested concept. Further work is critically needed to address the place of environmental protection within the blue economy, the role of communities in this process, and the potential human and social costs of additional economic activities at sea. As research on the blue economy expands and as stakeholders further exploit coastal and marine resources, it is crucial to deepen our understanding of how blue economy can be just and fair. Research on the topic has very much remained desk-based, Western-centred, and conceptual, with limited input by coastal communities. It is thus timely and important to investigate and advance alternative knowledge on the very concept of ocean justice; not just why it matters and what it means, but who it matters to and what it means for whom.
What we do
Advancing academic knowledge
We are investigating coastal communities’ understanding of ocean justice within the blue economy, an initiative which has been associated with social injustice and dispossession of vulnerable groups.
Providing methodological insights
We are providing distinctive methodological insights on the use of participatory photo elicitation to investigate people’s understanding of ocean justice.
Valorising local voices
We are prioritising coastal communities’ voices. By doing so, we are contributing to the need to deconstruct and decolonise the existing (Western and terra-centric) knowledge of the sea.
