Thematic Scope and Rationale
Humanity is a coastal species. Throughout history, human societies have sojourned, migrated, settled, and in turn transformed predominantly through and along shorelines. Yet contemporary dynamics including resource extraction, territorialisation and boundary-making, the effects of anthropogenic sea level change and the privatisation of oceanic spaces and coastlines all present new and increasingly acute challenges to the ways in which seascapes have been perceived and transformed – as spaces of socio-cultural exchange and as sites of dwelling, as profit frontiers, political territories, transportation hubs, or as playgrounds of conspicuous consumption.
This research blog provides a platform for cross-thematic dialogue and for the exchange of research, conceptual and methodological perspectives from across the humanities and social sciences, all of which contribute to a broader understanding of the coastal and marine. Marine Coastal Cultures is intended as an inclusive platform, welcoming multiple perspectives, viewpoints and modes of expression, both textual and visual. The following thematic clusters serve as orientation on the issues covered by the blog:
Space and Place at the Coast and at Sea:
- Histories and historical geographies of the coast and marine;
- Empirical approaches to spatiality and power in coastal protection and coastal and marine planning practices;
- Socio-cultural values and alternative knowledges in practices of coastal management and/ marine governance;
- Diverse forms of mobility (and immobility) implicating migration, human-animal relations, technological and knowledge flows.
Coastal and Marine Naturecultures:
- Political Ecology, multinatural and more-than-human geographies and multispecies ethnographies of the coast and at sea;
- Coastal and Marine STS takes on the sociomaterial practices of coastal and marine (techno)sciences;
- Environmental social science studies on coastal and marine extraction (e.g., sand-mining, deep-sea mining, LNG operations) and pollution (e.g. micro plastics, toxic environments).
(Decolonizing) Coastal and Marine Methodologies:
- Multiple and alternative ways of knowing and experiencing the coast and marine;
- Discourses on decolonizing coastal and marine spaces, their forms of interaction and meaning-making;
- Integrative and experimental methodological approaches in studying coastal and marine realms, including creative and artistic work;
- Insights from local / regional case studies worldwide, especially from ethnographic and participatory/collaborative research approaches.
Format
Blog posts will generally be between 500 and 1000 words in length and should ideally include at least one image. Multimedia posts (with a higher proportion of images to text and/or links to videos) are also welcome.
We encourage contributors to write in the first person where applicable. The blog provides an opportunity to provide a more personal account of your research experience. The content or inspiration for a blog post may come from many sources. It may, for example, relate to a recent publication or conference paper, fieldwork phase or research project, report on a recent workshop, symposium or conference, or review books or papers relevant to the field (classics or newly published pieces). Posts may also relate to the wider context of coastal and marine scholarship and the relationships between the humanities, social sciences and environmental sciences. We welcome contributions from researchers at all career stages, including advanced BA and MA students.
While English is the first language of this blog, we also welcome individual posts in German and other languages, provided a short summary in English is included. Where possible, references should take the form of hyperlinks linking to the online source of the publication (e.g. publishers’ websites).
Blog posts should be submitted via email to marinecoastalcultures<at>gmail.com. The Editors will make a quick assessment to ensure the post is of sufficient quality. Contributors are responsible for proofreading and securing copyright permission for all images where required.
Marine Coastal Cultures 