Elisabeth Mann-Borgese remarked that “the ocean is a medium […] so different [...] that it forces us [...] to 'refocus' […]. Fundamental concepts […] like sovereignty, geographic boundaries, or ownership, simply will not work [...], new […] concepts are emerging” (1998). This statement provides our workshop theme. We aim to assess whether the ocean is, in fact, a distinct political space and to explore consequences for political science and politics. We seek conceptual, idea-historical, empirical, and normative contributions to strengthen the emerging European network of ocean-concerned political scientists and publish results as programmatic advance for the field.
Mann-Borgese's thoughts today echo in the goals of the UN Ocean Decade (2021-2030), calling for a change in human relationships with the ocean. Reforming ocean policies, ocean-related decision-making and institution-building, and the constitution of oceanic orders raise questions at the core of political science. Yet, political science does not seem sufficiently well equipped – conceptually, and regarding empirical and normative insights – to answer them. Rather, it seems to lag behind. The ‘blue turn’ and advances in, for instance, international law (eg Braverman/Johnson 2020), history (eg Bosco 2022), geography (e.g. Peters/Steinberg 2019), and humanities (eg Mentz 2023) have only selectively reached us. Despite recent efforts (eg Armstrong 2022, Carvalho/Leira 2022), we mostly still suffer from 'sea-blindness' (Bueger/Edmunds 2017). To remedy that, we want to bring together work across political science to pinpoint the specificity of the ocean as a political space and explore consequences for the conceptual and theoretical base as well as the analytical tools of our discipline. Synthesising insights on issues such as maritime conflict and security, the constitutional evolution of oceanic order, human rights at sea and democratic ocean politics, as well as policies and institutions for ocean sustainability and the use of ocean resources, we want to increase our ability to contribute to answering the challenges of ocean politics today. In short, moving the questions centre-stage in how far oceanic orders differ from land-based politics and institution-building, this workshop aims to broaden the blue horizon of politics and political science.
Alger, J. (2021). Conserving the Oceans: The politics of Large Marine Protected Areas. Oxford University Press.
Armstrong, C. (2023). A Blue New Deal: Why We Need a New Politics for the Ocean. Yale University Press.
Bennett, N. J., Alava, J. J., Ferguson, C. E., Blythe, J., Morgera, E., Boyd, D. & Côté, I. M. (2023). Environmental (in)justice in the Anthropocene ocean. Marine Policy: 147, 105383.
Bosco, D. (2022). The Poseidon Project. The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Oxford University Press.
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Carvalho, B. d. & Leira, H. (eds.), (2022). The Sea and International Relations. Manchester University Press.
Hannigan, J. (2016). The Geopolitics of Deep Oceans. Wiley & Sons.
Mann-Borgese, E. (1998). The Oceanic Circle: Governing the Seas as a Global Resource. United Nations University Press.
Mentz, S. (2023). An Introduction to the Blue Humanities. Routledge.
Oppermann, S. (2023). Blue Humanities: Storied Waterscapes in the Anthropocene. Cambridge University Press.
Peters, K. & Steinberg, P. (2019). The Ocean in Excess: Towards a More-than-Wet Ontology. Dialogues in Human Geography 9(3): 293–307.
Ranganathan, S. (2019). Ocean Floor Grab: International law and the Making of an Extractive Imaginary. European Journal of International Law 30(2): 573-600.
Steinberg, P. (2001). The Social Construction of the Ocean. Cambridge University Press.
Vidas, D., & Østreng, W. (eds.), (2024). Order for the Oceans at the Turn of the Century. BRILL.
1: What characterises the ocean as a political space, how is it different from terranean space?
2: How are oceanic orders emerging, created, or sustained, what are their structures of domination?
3: How are present oceanic orders and their politics and policies to be evaluated and judged?
4: Which principles should guide policies, politics, and institution-building for new oceanic orders?
5: How do oceanic specificities necessitate or enable new paradigmatic thinking in political science?
1: the specificity of the ocean as political space: conceptualization & implications for the discipline
2: representations of the ocean in the history of political ideas and contemporary political theory
3: normative principles for or the assessment of blue justice and/or the legitimacy of oceanic orders
4: the politics of ocean knowledge production, ocean literacy, and oceanic regimes of truth
5: insights from other disciplines for ocean political science: marine sciences, blue humanities
6: ocean issues: analysing politics of maritime security, the marine environment, or blue growth
7: politics of ocean governance institutions and law, e.g. human rights at sea or regarding the sea
8: the production and reproduction of ocean(ic) spaces, borders, orders, dominance, and authority
