Creative approaches by visual arts (e.g. photos, sketches) can bring ocean-dependent communities’ voices into research and decision-making processes. This is one of the key insights shared by Dr Celine Germond-Duret and Dr Senia Febrica at the 2026 British International Studies Association (BISA) that took place from 3-5 June 2026 in Brighton, UK.
During this year BISA Conference Dr Germond-Duret chaired the Roundtable “Blue Justice: What research agenda for a sustainable and inclusive ocean” on the 4th of June 2026 that brought together Dr Senia Febrica (Lancaster University), Professor Peter Newell (University of Sussex), Dr Antje Scharenberg (University of Southampton), and Dr Charlotte Weatherhill (University of Manchester, co-convenor of BISA’s Environment and Climate Politics Working Group). The roundtable also included a short video from the Global South scholars including Dr Sulley Ibrahim (Institute of Local Government Studies, Ghana), Dr Harrison Golo (University of Education, Winneba, Ghana), Dr Buhle Francis (Nelson Mandela University), Dr Laely Nurhidayah (Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, Indonesia), and Silvia Dian Anggraeni (Universitas Pertamina, Indonesia) sharing key messages on the topic.
At BISA Conference Dr Germond-Duret and Dr Febrica also delivered a joint presentation titled “Integrating alternative knowledge of ocean justice into Indonesia’s blue economy” as part of the “Hydrosphere and Cryosphere Governance” Panel that was chaired by Dr Charlotte Weatherhill (University of Manchester) on Friday, the 5th of June 2026.
Insights from “Ocean justice and the blue economy” research project shared during the two events highlighted that:
- mainstreaming the notion of ocean justice in the blue economy is timely and important due to the unprecedented challenges faced by coastal communities due to unfair and unsustainable blue economy activities that caused heavy pollution, decline of fish stocks and community income, and other social-economy problems such as limited access to education, training, job or health services.
- access to information and participation for coastal communities in blue economy processes remains limited and sporadic. Even for community groups that have access to participation or consultation, they felt that their views were not being listened to, and key ask not acted upon. There are difficulties for coastal communities to access justice and/or gain compensation for loss and damage that they experienced.
- the use of creative methods can encourage research participants to share their lived experiences and discuss challenges that they face that they would normally would not be able or willing to do.
- drawing from understanding that there are different actors in Politics and International Relations and potential paths along which norms and practices of justice and equity may travel – from the top down, the bottom up or horizontally, International Relations approaches need to take a more holistic way in viewing interactions between paths, actors and framing at local, national, and global levels (Niner et al., 2022; Parks and Morgera, 2015).