At the 11th “MARE People and the Sea” Conference that took place from 28 June 28 to 2 July 2021 and was organized by Wageningen University, DIE was present with a series of panels and lectures.
The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) was represented by seven researchers in this central conference of the marine social sciences and addressed topics ranging from questions about EU fisheries policy to coastal protection and multi-level governance of the ocean to questions about ocean-related marine knowledge systems.
The DIE management was represented by Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge. Together with the DIE projects ‚Fiction meets Science‘, ‚C-Scope‘ and ‚SUDEA‘, as well as colleagues from the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the University of Vienna, she organised the panel ‘The constitution of marine knowledges: Ocean observation, narratives and regimes’. In addition to Prof. Hornidge, Beatrice Dippel, Mirja Schoderer, Ramona Haegele and Jacqueline Goetze reflected not only on the conditions of knowledge production in this field, but also its communication across epistemic communities. Their session was joined by Arne Langlet and Ass. Prof. Alice Vadrot from the ERC research project MARIPOLDATA (University of Vienna) and Roald Leeuwerik from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT).
Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Hornidge contributed as a speaker to the final panel of the conference titled „Sensitizing sustainable ocean development to social inequality“. She was joined by colleagues such as Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta (U Amsterdam), Prof. Dr. Yoshitaka Ota (U Washington) and Prof. Dr. Moenieba Isaacs (U of the Western Cape). The panel aimed to focus on social inequalities along coasts and in ocean-related industries. The small-scale and coastal fisheries sector in particular has traditionally been associated with marginalized populations in many countries. Coasts in the tropics and subtropics – due to their simultaneous harshness and beauty – are places where social inequality has always manifested itself, but particularly so in recent decades. It is here that the ‚bottom 5%‘ and the ‚top 5%‘ of society are found. Populations that have lived for generations along coasts of fishing, crabbing or salt production, and groups that can afford to move there for the view of the sea. The final panel of the Mare Conference chose to focus on this perspective of worsening social inequalities along tropical and subtropical coasts. Sea level rise, increasing coastal protection and impoverishment processes in small-scale fisheries due to overfishing and competition with industrial fisheries make tropical coasts in particular ‚hotspots of global change‘, where a large number of the world’s megacities are located. The expert panel identified the structural challenges and reflected on the role of marine social and cultural sciences in their analysis and visualization for societal awareness and policy deliberation, as well as decision-making processes. Detailed information on the entire conference as well as on the program can be found here: 2021 People & the Sea Conference – MARE Centre.
At the panel ‘Governing blue livelihoods’, Ina Lehmann, researcher at DIE, presented a joint new project proposal with Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, which they have submitted as part of a research mission on ‘Protection and Sustainable Use of the Oceans’ issued by the German Marine Research Alliance. In the context of this project, DIE plans to analyse how the local governance of the cumulative effects of diverse stressors on the marine space is embedded in global marine sustainability policies. At the same panel, Niels Keijzer presented a joint working paper with Sarah Delputte from the University of Ghent and Lina Galvis from the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies that explores the European Union’s responsibility for sustainable fishing in the Gulf of Guinea.
Are you interested in DIE’s work on Ocean regions in inter- and transnational cooperation? Have a look at our web special.
