Marine social sciences: Looking towards a sustainable future

McKinley, Emma; Acott, Tim G.; Yates, Katherine L.

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2020.03.015

Cited by 82 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Navigating the challenges facing marine social-ecological systems for ecosystem integrity and human well-being and prosperity necessitates the integration of the natural and social sciences (McKinley et al, 2020). While progress has been made in this regard, significant barriers to integrative marine research practice remain (e.g.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…interdisciplinary research) are recognised as necessary to deal with the complexity and unpredictability of social-ecological systems (Dick et al, 2016;Norström et al, 2020). In particular, recognition is increasing in relation to the value and importance of integrating social dimensions of marine conservation into research activities (Bennett, 2016;Bennett et al, 2019), and the ways in which marine social science can support this endeavour (McKinley et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Five Questions to Understand Epistemology and Its Influence on Integrative Marine Research

et al. 2021

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Developing solutions to the complex and uncertain problems facing marine and coastal social-ecological ecosystems requires new forms of knowledge production and integration. While progress has been made both in terms of successfully producing integrated marine research and connecting that knowledge to decision-makers, a number of significant challenges remain that prevent the routine development and implementation of successful integrated research practice. Based on our own experiences as social researchers working within interdisciplinary research teams, we contend that one of the main barriers to successful integrative marine research relates to understanding, and where possible reconciling, the different epistemologies that unpin how knowledge is created or discovered in different disciplines. We therefore aim to provide an accessible introduction to the concept of epistemology, with a focus on its importance and influence to integrated marine research practice. Specifically, we present and discuss five questions of research design that relate to epistemology in integrative research practices: (1) What is the object of study we seek to create knowledge about; (2) how do we create knowledge; (3) who accepts knowledge as ‘true’ and how?; (4) how do we determine the epistemology underpinning marine science; and (5) what are the implications of epistemology for applied integrative marine science? We demonstrate the application of each question through a hypothetical case study of marine restoration, focusing on coral transplanting. Finally, we offer readers a simple heuristic to guide them, irrespective of career stage or discipline, to understand and account for epistemology when participating in integrative marine research practices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five Questions to Understand Epistemology and Its Influence on Integrative Marine Research

et al. 2021

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“…Following the epistemological shift showcased by the GAP projects, more and more projects in the natural sciences have taken up SE as part of their methodology (Steins et al 2019;Mackinson and Holm 2020). Moreover, a relatively new field of marine social science has emerged that focuses on the relationships between people and the sea, the values ascribed to coasts and oceans, and related human activities (for a detailed introduction to marine social science, see McKinley et al 2020). Marine social science "include[s] a diverse […] set of disciplines, methods, and theories that can be applied to rigorously study the human dimensions of ocean and coastal issues and challenges" (Bennett 2019: 247).…”

Section: A Growing Interest In Exchange With Practitionersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder engagement vs. social distancing—how does the Covid-19 pandemic affect participatory research in EU marine science projects?

Köpsel¹,

Kiipper²,

Peck

2021

Maritime Studies

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In the realm of marine science, engaging with stakeholders (e.g., industry members, policy-makers, managers, NGOs) is an important method applied in many research projects. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted this engagement in two ways. First, social distancing measures forbid most face-to-face participatory activities originally envisioned in projects. Second, the restrictions have caused hardships for the stakeholders being engaged by these projects. We assessed the impact of Covid-19 on stakeholder engagement activities in ongoing EU marine science projects by posing the following questions: What problems has Covid-19 caused for the workflow and outcomes of current research projects, (ii) how have scientists responsible for stakeholder engagement coped with the situation, and (iii) if alternative stakeholder activities were implemented, how have these been evaluated? Our survey was conducted nearly 2 months after the onset of Covid-19 lockdowns. It addressed researchers who engage with stakeholders in EU projects and delivers insights into the practical implications of Covid-19 for stakeholder engagement and the measures taken to tackle this challenge. The paper highlights the impacts of the pandemic on stakeholder engagement in marine science, outlines current coping strategies in different EU projects, and recommends seven practical actions to promote and maintain meaningful exchange with stakeholders in times of social distancing and lockdowns.

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“…The need to create opportunities for specific information exchange through IMBeR events was emphasised, as was a role for IMBeR's Human Dimensions Working Group in providing training materials (e.g., short workshops/presentations) on aspects of "social science for natural scientists" (while the inverse, that natural scientists provide such material for the social scientists was not mentioned). Key informants suggested creating a database of social scientists, that could identify individual researchers potentially willing to become involved with addressing identified regional issues (but see for instance Mckinley et al, 2020). 9 Overall, facilitating engagement across all Regional Programmes, to share experiences of collaborating across disciplines, was highlighted as a worthwhile exercise.…”

Section: Enabling Engagement With Social Scientistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Decade of Incorporating Social Sciences in the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Project (IMBeR): Much Done, Much to Do?

et al. 2021

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Successful management and mitigation of marine challenges depends on cooperation and knowledge sharing which often occurs across culturally diverse geographic regions. Global ocean science collaboration is therefore essential for developing global solutions. Building effective global research networks that can enable collaboration also need to ensure inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to tackle complex marine socio-ecological challenges. To understand the contribution of interdisciplinary global research networks to solving these complex challenges, we use the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project as a case study. We investigated the diversity and characteristics of 1,827 scientists from 11 global regions who were attendees at different IMBeR global science engagement opportunities since 2009. We also determined the role of social science engagement in natural science based regional programmes (using key informants) and identified the potential for enhanced collaboration in the future. Event attendees were predominantly from western Europe, North America, and East Asia. But overall, in the global network, there was growing participation by females, students and early career researchers, and social scientists, thus assisting in moving toward interdisciplinarity in IMBeR research. The mainly natural science oriented regional programmes showed mixed success in engaging and collaborating with social scientists. This was mostly attributed to the largely natural science (i.e., biological, physical) goals and agendas of the programmes, and the lack of institutional support and push to initiate connections with social science. Recognising that social science research may not be relevant to all the aims and activities of all regional programmes, all researchers however, recognised the (potential) benefits of interdisciplinarity, which included broadening scientists’ understanding and perspectives, developing connections and interlinkages, and making science more useful. Pathways to achieve progress in regional programmes fell into four groups: specific funding, events to come together, within-programme-reflections, and social science champions. Future research programmes should have a strategic plan to be truly interdisciplinary, engaging natural and social sciences, as well as aiding early career professionals to actively engage in such programmes.

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Marine social sciences: Looking towards a sustainable future

Cited by 82 publications

References 36 publications

Five Questions to Understand Epistemology and Its Influence on Integrative Marine Research

Five Questions to Understand Epistemology and Its Influence on Integrative Marine Research

Stakeholder engagement vs. social distancing—how does the Covid-19 pandemic affect participatory research in EU marine science projects?

A Decade of Incorporating Social Sciences in the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Project (IMBeR): Much Done, Much to Do?

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