About this Research Topic
This Research Topic aims to provide a forum for scholarship interested in diverse material, geographical, political, ontological and epistemological aspects of marine biodiversity governance. Our objective is to go beyond conventional views and encourage critical perspectives on how marine biodiversity is governed globally, regionally, at different policy-making levels, in various maritime zones and ocean areas, vertically, horizontally, and across boundaries. We do so by problematizing linear understandings of ocean governance (where processes and practices of governing are understood to straightforwardly result in societial and environmental change) and by furthermore troubling the expectations that social science research should predominantly ‘fix’ environmental problems by translating natural science findings into policy recommendations and readily available solutions. Thus, we aim to provide a forum for researchers interested in marine biodiversity governance beyond ‘institutional fixes’ and open up a debate on new emerging issues within the field of marine biodiversity governance that need critical social science perspectives.
This research topic seeks to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue among social scientists, including sociologists (including topics such as mobilities studies), political scientists (including perspectives from political theory, IR and development studies), anthropologists, political ecologists, human geographers, and scholars from the science and technology studies (STS) and the social and historical studies of science. We are especially interested in research addressing new emerging issues within the field of marine biodiversity governance, including critical perspectives on:
- Politics of data/data portals/digital aspects
- Infrastructure (mapping, monitoring, surveillance, energy networks)
- Negotiations/International Organisations/Agreements/Conventions
- Ontologies/Epistemologies of governance approaches (species/invasive species governance; alien ocean, microbial governance, Marine Protected Areas and Area-Based Management Tools, marine genetic resources )
- Science-policy interrelation/ Knowledge politics
- Geopolitical aspects/Controversies/Conflicts/Territoriality/Sovereignty
- Blue economy/political economy/extractive industries
- Politics of conservation /sustainable use (Nature/culture/and the 'Anthropocene')
Keywords: Social Sciences, Marine Biodiversity, Ocean Governance, Critical Approaches, Management and Policy
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.