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Planning for citizen participation in the EU mission to restore our ocean and waters by 2030
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Date
2024-09-26
Authors
Whyte, David
Debaveye, Line
Bjørkan, Maiken
Steiro, Vida Maria Daae
Maria Vittoria Marra
Seys, Jan
Deane, Aoife
Namisnik, Wendy
Pelegri, Josep L.
Simon, Carine
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Publisher
Springer
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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 article 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” (Funtowicz & Ravetz Funtowicz and Ravetz, Krimsky and Golding (eds), Social Theories of Risk, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1992). We begin with a description of Mission Ocean & Waters, discussing its citizen engagement ambitions through the lens of Post-Normal Science, before describing the research methods used by the Horizon Europe project Preparing the Research and Innovation Core for Mission Oceans, Seas, & Waters (PREP4BLUE). We then present our results, highlighting four citizen engagement-based challenges that the Mission faces, and how PREP4BLUE has engaged with them. Finally, we discuss the future activities or structural changes that will be required if the Mission’s citizen engagement targets are to be achieved and for citizens to become core actors in protecting European aquatic ecosystems and developing a sustainable blue economy. These insights should prove useful to those developing and delivering Mission projects and those researching citizen participation in ocean and freshwater related challenges.
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Keywords
Mission Ocean , Citizen engagement , Participation , Post-normal science , European Commission , Mission , Ocean & Waters Mission
Citation
Whyte, D., Debaveye, L., Bjørkan, M., Steiro, V.M.D., Marra, M.V., Seys, J., Deane, A., Namisnik, W., Pelegri, J.L., Simon, C., Falcieri, F., Giuffredi, R., Laurenza, L., Apazoglou, E., Petersen, H.C., Carbajal, M.E., Giannoukakou-Leontsini, I., Fuster, N. and Nys, C. (2024) ‘Planning for citizen participation in the EU mission to restore our ocean and waters by 2030’, Maritime Studies, 23(4), p. 44. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-024-00385-x
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© The Author(s). This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-024-00385-x. Use of this Accepted Version is subject to the publisher’s Accepted Manuscript terms of use: https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/policies/acceptedmanuscript- terms