Researching People and the Sea

In this unique edited collection, social scientists reflect upon and openly share insights gathered from researching people and the sea. Understanding how people use, relate to and interact with coastal and marine environments has never been more important, with social scientists having an increasingly vital contribution to make. Yet practical experiences in deploying social science approaches in this field are typically hidden away in field notes and unpublished doctoral manuscripts, with the opportunity for shared learning that comes from doing research often missed. There is a need for reflection on how social science knowledge is produced. This collection presents experiences from the field, its necessary reflexivity and innovation in methods, and the challenges and opportunities of translating across disciplines and policy. It brings to light the tacit expertise needed to study people and the sea and offers lessons which readers could employ in their own research. With afocus on the future direction of marine social sciences, the volume is highly relevant to masters and doctoral students and more experienced researchers engaged in studying people and the sea, as well as policy makers, practitioners and scientists wishing to understand the social dimension of marine and coastal environments. 
Chapters 2 and 3 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Madeleine Gustavsson is a researcher at Ruralis – Institute for Rural and Regional Research in Trondheim, Norway. 

Carole White is a research fellow in the Global Environmental Justice Group at the University of East Anglia, UK and and social researcher in the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. 

Jeremy Phillipson is Professor of Rural Development at the Centre for Rural Economyat Newcastle University, UK.  

Kristen Ounanian is an associate professor at Centre for Blue Governance at Aalborg University, Denmark.