Planning for citizen participation in the EU Mission to Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030

For anyone interested in the EU’s Mission Ocean & Waters and/or citizen participation on Thursday 14th, 2 pm CET, David Whyte from MaREI University College Cork will give a talk on will be discussing our new paper: “Planning for citizen participation in the EU Mission to Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” in the Anthropology of the Seas (ANTHSEAS) network meeting. The link and talk abstract are below for anyone who wants to join!

Link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/85019396702#success

Paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40152-024-00385-x

*Abstract:*

The European Commission’s Mission to “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” (Mission Ocean & Waters) is, at the most superficial level, an overarching policy framework with the primary aim of improving the health of European ocean, sea, and freshwater ecosystems. However, its use of the Mission framing and emphasis on fostering social, political, and economic transformations through its activities makes it a much more holistic and ambitious undertaking. This presentation explores challenges and opportunities that arise with the emphasis placed on increasing citizen participation in Mission Ocean & Waters, in the context of “Post-Normal Science”. It will begin with a description of Mission Ocean & Waters, discussing its citizen engagement ambitions through the lens of Post-Normal Science, and why the Mission is interesting from an anthropological perspective. It will then describe the research methods used by the Horizon Europe project Preparing the Research and Innovation Core for Mission Oceans, Seas, & Waters (PREP4BLUE), and present the projects results, highlighting four citizen engagement-based challenges that the Mission faces, and how PREP4BLUE has engaged with them. Finally, we will discuss the future activities or structural changes that will be required if the Mission’s citizen engagement targets are to be achieved, for citizens to become core actors in protecting European aquatic ecosystems and developing a sustainable blue economy, and potential roles for anthropology in researching and supporting these transnational policy frameworks. These insights should prove useful to those developing and delivering Mission projects and those researching citizen participation in ocean and freshwater related challenges.