Creating space for interdisciplinary marine and coastal research: five dilemmas and suggested resolutions

Abstract

SUMMARYImportant changes are needed to disciplinary theories and methods to support interdisciplinary and integrated ocean and coastal management policies and implementation. This review argues that theories and methods should conform to a perspective that ocean management is a societal activity with diverse goals ideally informed by interdisciplinary information. The review focuses on the integrated coastal management (ICM) and marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) frameworks and the marine protected areas (MPA) management tool. It begins by suggesting that at present there is a notable imbalance in the degree of effort allocated to monitoring the ecological and social dimensions of ocean resource use and policy processes. Based on how Western society and an influential epistemic community construct 'the environment' and society's relation to the environment, natural sciences play an inordinately important role in the description of the problem and policy recommendations. The discourse advocating for a global networks of marine protected areas, without adequate consideration of society impacts and responses, represents an example of this imbalance. Rebalancing the contributions of scientific disciplines encounters various dilemmas with epistemological, methodological and sociological dimensions. The analysis concludes with suggestions for balancing ocean and coastal interdisciplinary research and reframing key issues, creating self reflexive and multidisciplinary research teams, and reworking educational programmes.

Resource degradation, marginalization, and poverty in small-scale fisheries: threats to social-ecological resilience in India and Brazil

“…For example, economic exclusion can accelerate social marginalization and class exploitation can cause political disempowerment, all linked integrally to the ecological processes upon which fisheries depend. This is consistent with the view that social and ecological systems are interdependent and social and institutional dynamics are integral to biophysical and ecological processes (Liu et al 2007, Christie 2011. Any attempt to separate them is artificial and arbitrary (Berkes and Folke 1998).…”

Conservation social science: Understanding and integrating human dimensions to improve conservation

“…Fourth, we note here the reflexive value of both the social sciences and the environmental humanities -including history and philosophywhich allow us to explore the history and underlying assumptions of conservation (Adams, 2004;Cronon, 1996;Jacoby, 2014) and what constitutes ethical or responsible conservation actions (Moore and Russell, 2009;Moore and Nelson, 2011). The social sciences can also enable us to examine the way that different cultures or groups might think about nature or conservation and the implications for practice (Augustine and Dearden, 2014;Berkes and Turner, 2006;Christie, 2011).…”

The Chilika Lagoon Social-Ecological System: An Historical Analysis

“…It was developed from the idea that human societies and the biophysical systems that contain them are integrally linked (Turner et al 2003, MEA 2005, Clark and Levin 2010, Christie 2011. It extends the analysis of social-ecological systems, highlights the integration of humans with nature, and considers any delineation between the two as artificial and arbitrary (Berkes and Folke 1998).…”