The abstract below was submitted for the 2021 Australian Marine Science Association conference. If you are interested to discuss this, please get in touch.

Symposia

• Environmental Stewardship: Taking Positive Actions in Marine Social Ecological Systems
• Interdisciplinary Research to Underpin a Sustainable Anthropocene
• Our Future Ocean: Delivering to the UN Decade of Ocean Science

Paper

For Blue - opportunities at the intersection of ecology, economy and social ontology.

For Blue was founded on two observations: first, WA institutions are influential in the Indian Ocean yet it has no specific Blue Economy strategy and second, that scientifically-validated models of the distribution and evolution of human meaning-making are not being used in determining strategies for improving ocean health.

Phase 1 of ‘For Blue’ is a pilot research project to discern opportunities for WA institutions and innovations to beneficially contribute to the health of the Indian Ocean. This presentation focuses on our approach to discerning stakeholders meaning-making, or ‘action logics’. Our abductive approach drew on literature reviews and semi-structured interviews to test specific hypotheses about stakeholders action logics.

The findings are sufficiently significant to both focus future research and prioritise specific Blue Economy strategies. The wider implications may be very significant for marine social science, policy making and ocean health strategies. Taking the same scientific approach to meaning-making, as we do for biogeophysical science and economic analysis, could result in better ocean health outcomes. We will share three scenarios of what the advocated approach could look like for: researchers, policy-makers and stewards of the Indian Ocean.