Ocean Governance : Knowledge Systems, Policy Foundations and Thematic Analyses

This Open Access book on Ocean Governance examines sustainability challenges facing our oceans today. The book is organized into three sections: knowledge systems, policy foundations and thematic analyses. The knowledge produced in the book was catalyzed by the scientific outcomes within the European-funded Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) network “Ocean Governance for Sustainability – Challenges, Options and the Role of Science”. This network brings together scientists, policy-makers and civil society representatives from 28 nation states to cooperate on ocean governance research. This book offers a compilation of new research material including focused case studies, broad policy syntheses and reflective chapters on the history and current status of knowledge production systems on ocean governance. New research material is presented, although some chapters draw on secondary sources. The book starts with synthetic review chapters from the editors, outlining past and present knowledge systems, addressing how and why ocean governance for sustainability is where it currently stands with critical reflections on existing narratives, path dependencies and colonialist histories. This is followed by chapters addressing, synthesizing and analyzing different legal and policy frameworks for ocean governance both regionally and internationally. At the core of the book are the thematic analyses, which provide focused case studies with detailed contextual information in support of different ocean governance challenges and sustainability pathways around the world. The book concludes with a chapter explicitly targeting students, researchers and policy-makers with key take-away messages compiled by the editors.

Dr. Stefan Partelow is a researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen, Germany. He focuses on governance and sustainability issues surrounding environmental commons, specializing in marine and coastal systems. He draws extensively on social-ecological systems concepts and analytical approaches, employing both inter- and trans-disciplinary methods. His focal geographies span the global tropics, with extensive research on small-scale fisheries, aquaculture and tourism in Indonesia. He is the co-founder and co-host of the In Common podcast, featuring interviews with emerging and leading researchers in the environmental social sciences around the world.

Dr. Maria Hadjimichael’s interests lie in the study and understanding of the governance of the commons, particularly marine and coastal commons. She examines issues such as the ‘stealing of the seashore’ and ocean grabbing through neoliberal mechanisms. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Innovative Fisheries Management Institute of Aalborg University in Denmark. Her PhD (Bangor University, U.K.) explored the human dimensions of the European fisheries governance. She has worked on numerous interdisciplinary EU funded projects and conducted fieldwork in the UK, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Cyprus, the US and Chile. She has also founded the website reclaimthesea.org.

Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge is Director of the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and Professor for Global Sustainable Development at the University of Bonn. In her research, she works on knowledges & innovation for development, as well as questions of natural resource governance in agriculture and fisheries in Asia and Africa. She serves as an expert advisor at the national, EU and UN level: as Member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change of the German Government (WBGU), Co-Chair (with Gesine Schwan) of SDSN Germany, and as part of the executive council of the German UNESCO-Commission.