AbstractCoastal and marine spaces are emerging as experimental sites of a “Blue” economy that’s aligned with capitalocentric imaginaries of growth and development while also promising futures of ocean health. Critiques of Blue Economy, while important, often recapitulate stories of decline and dispossession, leaving little hope for other economic possibilities. In this regard, how may we define blue community economies or blue economic practices aligned with community and environmental wellbeing? Building on the prior session “Making (Blue) Communities Matter: Voices from the Field,” this session approaches these questions through interrogating how we, as researchers, can use ethnographic methods to methodologically center communities that we work with in scholarship. This includes critical attention to the gaps between what we (as researchers) read, observe and represent in our various field sites where a singular economy is centered but yet to be realized. It also involves thinking-with our interlocutors’ complex subject positions in and changing ideas of Blue Economy – as well as their needs from and desires for such an economy. Reflecting on our research practices to make (blue) communities matter therefore presents an entry point to understanding how we read for emergent knowledges, community practices and economic difference while envisioning blue economies otherwise.
Featuring: Nia Cambridge, Dhruv Gangadharan, Maris Gillette, Nityanand Jayaraman, Emily Melvin, Hillary Smith, Kevin St. Martin, Fiona McCormack, Sami Stroud
