MARIPOLDATA READING GROUPS
Monthly MARIPOLDATA reading group on Ocean Protection since March 2020
Opportunity for exchange and discussions on ocean topics
The world’s oceans are home to prestige ecosystems and marine biodiversity. The majority of the oceans are not under the jurisdiction of any state and therefore regulations to protect and use the oceans resources and space need to be agreed on an international level. Currently, the United Nations are negotiating a legally binding agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) to close gaps in the existing institutional frameworks and to set regulations for the protection and further exploitation of common ocean resources.
The interdisciplinary MARIPOLDATA reading group will provide an opportunity for exchange and discussions on ocean topics that are currently relevant to international ocean politics on the global scale. The Reading Group will meet 4 times in the semester and invites anyone interested in global environmental governance and ocean issues from all academic backgrounds. Prior knowledge on ocean issues is not required.
Readings will be distributed prior to the meetings and will cover recently published political science peer-reviewed articles, policy briefs and other publications relevant to global ocean governance. Texts will cover readings in the field of social sciences, and oftentimes be linked to theories from international relations, political science or related fields. However the group invites all disciplines interested in marine issues and environmental protection to participate.
The reading group will be in close connection to the topics covered by the MARIPOLDATA Seminar Series and readings will include publications of the invited scholars. Reading group members are welcome to suggest and present readings of their own research or work.
Aims:
•Provide room for discussion and debate on recent publications in the field of ocean science and politics with specific emphasis on ocean protection, sustainable development and SDG14.
•Facilitate dialogue between different disciplines and research areas.
•Increase interdisciplinary exchange between scholars interested in ocean related issues.
Target Group:
•Anyone interested in ocean related issues and research as well as in reading and discussing recent literature in the field. All disciplines are welcome.
Topics:
•Sustainability and economic growth in the World Ocean Regime (in preparation to the talk of P. Jacques)
•Politics of the international negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity
•The complexity of global ocean governance: Actors, instruments and international agreements
•How to conserve marine species and ecosystems? Marine protected areas in the High Seas
•Environmental impact assessments in marine environments
•Exploiting the Seas?- Deep sea mining and Marine Genetic Resources
•Global fisheries – Tragedy of the commons? The problem of overfishing
•Protection of mammals in the world’s oceans
•Oceans and climate change
•Marine scientific research and capacity building for ocean protection
•Justice in ocean politics
How to join?
If you are interested, please contact Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki (ina.tessnow-vonwysocki@univie.ac.at), indicating your name and institution, to be added to the MARIPOLDATA reading group mailing list and receive the dates for upcoming meetings and the reading material.
PAST EVENTS
"Ocean Monitoring, Control and Surveillance" - Virtual Reading Group - December 16, 2020
Ocean Monitoring, Control and Surveillance
Date: 16 December 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)
Venue: Virtual Meeting
Klaudija Cremers, Research Fellow in International Ocean Governance at IDDRI presented the article Strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance of human activities in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction: Challenges and opportunities for an international legally binding instrument (Cremers et al., 2020).
The summary of the discussion will soon be uploaded.
"Ocean Privatization" - Virtual Reading Group - November 25, 2020
Ocean Privatization
Date: 25 November 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)
Venue: Virtual Meeting
The MARIPOLDATA Reading Group welcomed Prof. Dr Achim Schlüter, Department Head (Social Sciences) and Working Group Leader (Institutional and Behavioural Economics) at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research and Professor for Social Systems and Ecological Economics at Jacobs University to present his article Broadening the perspective on ocean privatizations: an interdisciplinary social science enquiry (Schlüter et al., 2020).
Summary of the exchanges here
"Science-Policy Interfaces" in United Nations negotiations - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - October 28, 2020
“Science-Policy Interfaces” in United Nations negotiations
Date: 28 October 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CEST)
Venue: Virtual Meeting
During this reading group session, we discussed how science meets policy for the question of how to regulate the use and protection of our ocean in the future.
We were happy to welcome Christine Gaebel, iAtlantic & ATLAS Policy Project Manager at the University of Edinburgh, to present her recent paper Recognising Stakeholder Conflict and Encouraging Consensus of ‘Science-Based Management’ Approaches for Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ).
Summary of the exchange here.
Ethics and the BBNJ Agreement - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - September 23, 2020
Ethics and the BBNJ Agreement
Date: 23 September 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CEST)
Venue: Virtual Meeting
The MARIPOLDATA Reading Group had the opportunity to engage with Dr. Carl Safina, ecologist and founding president of the Safina Center, to discuss our ethical responsibility towards the ocean.
Summary of the exchanges here.
Innovative Session II during 2020 Virtual Forum on Earth System Governance - September 15, 2020
How do practitioners view our work? A transdisciplinary debate about the relevance of (studying) intergovernmental negotiation sites
Conveners: Hannah Hughes, Alice Vadrot
Date: 15 September, 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Conference Room – Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna
The central objective of this innovative panel is to facilitate an inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue between scholars studying intergovernmental environmental negotiation sites and the various actors (including national delegates, representatives of NGOs, treaty secretariats, youth movements and local and indigenous communities) in the field.
The panel will be organized as a roundtable, inviting participants 1) to share their experience and expert knowledge on the current state and development of environmental agreement making and so-called mega-events and 2) to reflect on scholarship using these sites for empirical research. The aim of the session is twofold: firstly, to provide an interactive space, where practitioners reflect on the relevance and value of empirical research and give feedback on current efforts to innovate methods for studying negotiation sites. Secondly, we aim to trigger a debate on the significance of those negotiation sites from the perspective of both, the practitioners that engage in agreement making processes as well as scholars of Global Environmental Politics and Earth System Governance studying them.
More information about the event here
Fishing and the BBNJ Agreement - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - August 19, 2020
Fishing and the BBNJ Agreement
Date: 19 August 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Virtual Meeting
The MARIPOLDATA Team welcome expert Dr. Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, to present his paper on “High-seas fish biodiversity is slipping through the governance net” and engage in the discussion afterwards.
Fisheries affect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and a fragmented and incomplete ocean governance framework is currently charged with ensuring sustainable fisheries in the High Seas.
With the BBNJ agreement’s objective to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity in ABNJ, the connection between the BBNJ agreement and fishing practices in the High Seas has to be considered.
How is fishing affecting marine biodiversity in ABNJ?
What is the role of existing regional and sectoral organizations currently responsible for sustainable fisheries?
And what does it mean for marine biodiversity in ABNJ if fish was excluded from the BBNJ agreement?
Summary of the exchanges here.
Rights of Nature - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - July 22, 2020
Rights of Nature and the relevance of traditional knowledge in the BBNJ negotiations
Date: 22 July 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Virtual Meeting
This week´s reading group focused on two articles:
• a paper considering how a Rights of Nature perspective might inform the BBNJ agreement
• a paper discussing the integration of the traditional knowledge of indigenous Peoples and local communities into the BBNJ instrument
Clement Yow Mulalap from the Permanent Mission of the Federated States of Micronesia to the United Nations in New York City presented one of his recent co-wrritten article Traditional Knowledge and the BBNJ instrument.
Summary of the exchanges here.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the High Seas - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - June 17, 2020
How to protect marine biodiversity? Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the High Seas
Date: 17 June 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Virtual Meeting
After discussing the complexity of ocean governance last session, we turned more specifically to ocean protection in form of MPAs. The discussion was based on two readings :
• a paper on ecological connectivity of our oceans and resulting implications for MPA design
• a policy-relevant short forum article, which calls for mobile marine protected areas to be discussed in the upcoming BBNJ negotiations
This was an opportunity to reflect on current marine conservation and gather ideas for future ocean protection.
Summary of the exchanges here.
The complexity of global ocean governance - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - May 6, 2020
The complexity of global ocean governance: Actors, instruments and international agreements
Date: 6 May 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Virtual Meeting
The team chose 2 readings which served as a basis for discussion.
The first one was an an introductory reading to the complexity of ocean governance, especially for persons who might not be so familiar with the topic.
The second text was an academic article on maritime political ecology: How can we study the relations of these various actors regulating our oceans, what are implications for them and for the protection of marine ecosystems?
In the reading group we connected this perspective to BBNJ issues and discussed the text in the light of the ongoing negotiations for the new BBNJ instrument.
BBNJ - MARIPOLDATA Reading Group - April 8, 2020
Topic: Politics of the international negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction
The team chose 2 readings which gave an insight into the ongoing negotiations and provided a basis for discussions.
Date: 8 April 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.00
Venue: Virtual Meeting
The first one was a viewpoint piece and described conflict lines and outcomes of the latest conference of these negotiations.
The second article was a short piece, offering insights into debates on how the new instrument might affect the conduct of marine scientific research.
Are you new to the topic of this UN agreement and are wondering what it is about?
The United Nations are currently negotiating a new agreement for regulations of marine biodiversity in areas outside of national jurisdiction. This new legally binding agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) includes topics on conservation (through marine protected areas and other area-based management tools, as well as environmental impact assessments) and seeks to find a mechanism to share access and benefits from marine genetic resources among the different states, as well as to guarantee capacity building and marine technology transfer to developing countries, where financial and technical means are missing for marine scientific research in the depths of our oceans.
Talk by Peter Jacques - MARIPOLDATA Seminar Series - March 11, 2020 - Vienna
The Shifting Context of Sustainability: Growth and the World Ocean Regime
Discussant: Dr. Monika Berg (Orebrö University)
Date: 11 March 2020
Time: 18.00 – 19.30
Venue: Conference Room – Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna
In the framework of the MARIPOLDATA seminar series and the IPW Lectures (Department of Political Science, Vienna University) we welcomed Peter Jacques from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA.
Please contact us via email if you would like to access the recorded talk of Peter Jacques : maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at
The World Ocean Regime is not an official treaty agreed to by states in some formal process, but it probably governs the marine world. This talk discussed how this regime was discovered and the nature of the economistic values and norms that are the main feature. This includes how the idea of sustainability has changed over time in discourses about the ocean to become more growth-oriented in a way that is not actually sustainable.
Peter Jacques is a Professor of Political Science and affiliate faculty of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research. He has extensive experience in the field of environmental politics and sustainability. Prof. Jacques is the President of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences for the term June 2018- June 2020. His research interests include Global Environmental Change, Sustainability Science, Indigenous Sustainability Issues, Ocean Conservation, Climate Change and Political Ecology/Green Political Theory.
Monika Berg is a senior lecturer in sociology and has a doctoral degree in political science. She is part of the Environmental Sociology Section at Örebro University. Monika is a guest researcher at the department of Political Science of the University of Vienna and in MARIPOLDATA in March 2020.
Talk by Sarah de Rijcke - MARIPOLDATA Seminar Series - January 23, 2020 - Vienna
How Evaluation shapes Ocean Science – A Multi-Scale Ethnography of Fluid Knowledge
Date: 23 January 2020
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Wächtergasse 1, Top 5, 504, 1010 Vienna
In the framework of its seminar series, the MARIPOLDATA team had the pleasure to welcome in Vienna Sarah de Rijcke from the University of Leiden and director of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CTWS) in the Netherlands.
In 2018, Professor de Rijcke received an ERC Starting Grant for the project ‘FluidKnowledge – How evaluation shapes ocean science’. The ERC project will run from January 2019 until December 2023. On the occasion of the MARIPOLDATA seminar serie, she spoke about the progress of the FluidKnowledge project.
The FluidKnowledge project investigates the past, present and future of evaluating ocean science. Ocean science, like many fields, is under great pressure to be both scientifically excellent, and relevant to industry, and relevant to the future of the planet. How do steering efforts toward interdisciplinary engagement and societal relevance relate to other norms and criteria of scientific quality (e.g. excellence, global competitiveness) in actual practice? The team examines the intricate epistemic consequences that evaluation might have on concrete practices of knowledge creation by combining longitudinal quantitative analysis with rich ethnographic studies in different national contexts. They will also develop concepts to theoretically grasp the constitutive potential of research evaluation, based on such multilevel approaches.
Sarah de Rijcke is professor of Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies and director of CWTS, where she leads the Science and Evaluation Studies research group. Her current research program examines interactions between research governance and practices of knowledge production. Sarah is a member of the editorial board of Science, Technology, and Human Values (ST&HV), Science and Technology Studies, and Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. Professional memberships include the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Dutch National research school for Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC).
More information about the ERC project FluidKnowledge here.
Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at
Talk by Paolo Albano - MARIPOLDATA Seminar Series - December 12, 2019 - Vienna
Biodiversity collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Date: 12 December 2019
Time: 16.30 – 18.00
Venue: Wächtergasse 1, Top 5, 504, 1010 Vienna
In the framework of the MARIPOLDATA seminar series, Paolo G. Albano, researcher at the Department of Paleontology at the University of Vienna gave a talk about the biodiversity collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
The Levantine basin in the easternmost Mediterranean Sea is well known for hosting hundreds of non-indigenous species introduced after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. A still insufficiently recognized but equally dramatic phenomenon is the disappearance of native species. We have quantified this decline using intense sampling on the Israeli shelf targeting mollusks, and using death assemblages, the accumulation of empty shells in the sediments, to reconstruct the baseline.
On soft substrates, our sampling intercepted only 24% of the historically recorded species. On rocky substrates, our preliminary results show even fewer native species in respect to the baseline (ca 5-7%).
The talk will then discuss the potential explanations of this massive biodiversity loss pointing at the locally rapid climate warming as the most likely culprit.
Paolo G. Albano is a senior post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Paleontology of the University of Vienna and principal investigator of a project to explore the rapid changes occurring in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. His research focuses on the patterns and processes of biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems, with a special focus on the Mediterranean Sea.
Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at
Talk by Marcela Vecchione Gonçalves - MARIPOLDATA Seminar Series -September 12, 2019 - Vienna
Whose Climate for What Politics? Attempts of a Political Ecology and Economy Analysis on Contemporary Brazilian Environmental Politics
Date: 12 September 2019
Time: 17.00 – 18.30
Venue: Wächtergasse 1, Top 5, 504, 1010 Vienna
In the framework of the first edition of its seminar series, the MARIPOLDATA team was very glad to welcome in Vienna Marcela Vecchione Gonçalves from the Federal University of Pará.
Fires, violence and intense political debates have been heating the political climate in Brazil lately. From within the Ministries and Presidential cabinets, reaching out to the rainforest animated by heated declarations amid the Parliament as well as within the broad political and civil society, environmental and climate politics, alongside with land and indigenous politics, have never been as much in the spotlight as it is currently the case in the country. It is well known fires and changes in tone and directions in policies related to rainforest protection and conservation contribute dramatically to global warming and loss in biodiversity. Nevertheless, what lacks reflection, particularly internationally, is how these changes also affect local and regional lives – including those at the Pan Amazon region, not just in Brazil, sparking violence through empowering a few who concentrate and use land disrespecting environmental, agrarian and labour legislation. Frequently, such violence is as much political as it is the disregard for other ways of living and for the rights to land accessed through a safe and collective natural environment; principles democratically coined by the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. In this sense, debates and global negotiations around the “Amazon issue” and its globality cannot afford to be also a debate about which environmental and climate politics we are talking, for whom and in which basis it is being carried on through international negotiations based on principles of an equitable and sustainable development. In what terms, the Brazilian case can prompt us in research, as well as in action, to relate resource politics to global political ecology? In other words, how do internal political change and its relation to land and resource politics in terms of positioning in global politics can help us reflecting on the connections between ecology and democracy? Human Rights and Rights to Development? Global Political Economy and Global Political Ecology? Violence, Autonomy and Resistance? At the same time, how an interconnected analysis can also provide us with elements to think on the nature of politics and the politcs of nature at the present history by bringing on its centrality to the possiblities of a radical democracy. We believe such points are essential to analyze the crisis in Brazil and why the crises in Brazil is turning into a diplomatic crises on the environment.
Marcela Vecchione Gonçalves is the head of the Graduate Studies Program on Sustainable Development at the Humid Tropics, hosted by the Centre of Advanced Amazonian Studies at the Federal University of Pará, Eastern Amazon, Brazil. She holds a PhD in International Relations and have been researching and teaching on Amazonian Political Ecology, Indigenous Peoples as well as Global Development in the last 12 years. Marcela is also a member and contributor of a number of Brazilian land and environmental movements.
Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at
MARIPOLDATA Workshop on Methods - September 10-11, 2019 - Vienna
Conducting research at global environmental negotiations
Date: September 10 – 11, 2019
Venue: University of Vienna
This workshop will bring together scholars experienced in global environmental negotiations and contributing to the development and application of conceptual and methodological innovations. The aim is to further develop these innovations and produce a guide for those new to the study of environmental meetings. To achieve this, the workshop will integrate the needs and perspectives of postgraduate scholars so that together we can explore how a new generation of research can be catalysed, the aim of which is to transform how we collectively study global environmental agreement making.
This workshop responds to the need for greater practical methodological guidance and is part of a series of events that are designed to facilitate in-depth discussion between experienced, early career and postgraduate researchers in order to develop appropriate research tools and frameworks.
The workshop builds on work by Hughes and Vadrot as published in a recent special section in Global Environmental Politics on Methodological Innovation in the Study of Global Environmental Agreement Making, edited by Hannah Hughes, Kimberly Marion Suiseeya and Alice Vadrot.
The workshop also draws on and informs research conducted in the ERC Project MARIPOLDATA directed by Alice Vadrot.
More information about the programme HERE.
The role of oral histories in understanding science-policy interrelations - June 25, 2019 - Cambridge
Date: 25 June, 2019
Time: 13.00 – 17.00
Venue: Cambridge Judge Business School
Dr Alice Vadrot, principal investigator of the ERC funded research project MARIPOLDATA (which investigates the politics of marine biodiversity data), and the Centre for Science and Policy hosted a workshop on the role of oral histories in understanding science-policy interrelations.
Context
In order to protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) governments are currently negotiating a new legally binding treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Marine biodiversity science plays a central role in supporting intergovernmental efforts to identify, protect and monitor marine biodiversity. This field will also inform governments on particular aspects of marine biodiversity, including its economic use and contribution to biosecurity. It will also shape the practicalities of certain policy options and the potential effects on ocean science conducted in ABNJ.
Mapping the overall field of marine biodiversity science, the leading scientific experts, how they are connected and how they are involved in international negotiations, is a necessary research step for understanding science-policy interrelations more broadly and why they matter in current intergovernmental negotiations for protecting marine biodiversity. Given that biodiversity science represents a heterogeneous bundle of research activities, interests and methodologies, individual scientists provide an important entry point for assessing and analysing how marine biodiversity has emerged as a key issue within ocean politics.
MARIPOLDATA kick-off meeting - May 21, 2019 - Vienna
Photo by Sara Santandrea on Unsplash
When: Tuesday, 21 May 2019, 17:45-21:30 CET
Where: Mezzanin7, Liechtensteinstraße 12/2/7, 1090 Vienna
The MARIPOLDATA Kick-off meeting took place on May 21, 2019 in Vienna.
After input from Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hajo Boomgaarden, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Prainsack, Dr. Julien Rochette and Julie Rigaud, Ass.-Prof. Dr. Alice Vadrot and her team presented MARIPOLDATA and opened the floor for questions and debate. The event was open to the interested public.
Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at
Science Talk 2019 - March 12, 2019 - Vienna
Join us on a journey through the world of EU-funded early-stage research. Our academics present their research projects and talk about their life at the University. During the Science Talk, twelve awardees of the highly competitive ERC Starting Grant funding scheme present their major projects. Furthermore, six young postdoctoral fellows of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie mobility scheme talk about their research. In their presentations, these academics talk about the relevance of their results for the advancement of research and discuss how their research aims at promoting social and economic developments.
Seize this opportunity to ask our researchers questions and engage in a dialogue with them.
Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 17:00 – 19:30
Small Ceremonial Chamber of the University of Vienna (Kleiner Festsaal) – see map (pdf)
1010 Vienna, Universitätsring 1