ENP-39806 Marine Governance

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

ENP-34306 Environmental Policy: Analysis and Evaluation

Contents:

This course is a ENP thesis preparing course for the MAM marine governance specialization. During the course, students will develop a thorough understanding of the state-of-the art in marine governance as well as skills for developing a research plan. Students will be introduced to current issues and debates in marine governance that are discussed in social scientific literature, such as:
- the current processes of regionalization and the development of Ecosystem based management in EU marine policies and Marine Spatial Planning;
- the traceability and the credibility of information for certifying global value chain around aquaculture or wild caught fish;
- the increased proactive role of multi-national corporations in tackling global ocean issues such as the plastic soup or sustainable shipping;
- participatory knowledge production and uptake of knowledge in marine governance processes i.e. in fisheries management, MPA designation and management, or certification and labelling;
- governing new economic activities and environmental issues in weak institutional settings: the Arctic, deep sea mining, multi-use platforms, tourism.
Students will actively engage with one of these topics in an individual paper in which they elaborate on a problem statement, develop research objective and questions, elaborate on a theoretical framework that will be used in analysing the topic and the set of methods that should be used to gather data on this topic. Weekly tutorials and peer review sessions will support each student in writing their paper.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- evaluate scientific progress in a sub-domain within marine governance and formulate future research questions for this domain;
- formulate a marine governance research objective and questions and select a relevant theory and research method to answer these questions;
- develop in an iterative way a research proposal that includes a problem statement, research objective and questions, a theoretical framework and a methodological plan for data collection and analysis.

Activities:

Lectures, weekly tutorials and independent study.

Examination:

- individual paper (75%);
- assignments in the tutorial (25%).

Literature:

Articles and book chapters to be announced on Blackboard.