Blue Connections

Blue Connections: Exploring Society and the Ocean is a short, informal conference that will invite participants to explore their connections to oceans, seas, and waters in different ways. Over a day and a half, we will use science, the humanities, coastal community knowledge and coastal practices in an informal setting to see how our diverse engagements with water might be used as the foundations for more harmonious relations with the natural world, and each other.

The 2020s look to be a decade in which humanity will attempt to transform its relationship with the ocean. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) has as its mission ‘to catalyse transformative ocean science solutions for sustainable development, connecting people and our ocean’. Other regional initiatives such as the European Commission’s Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 similarly place the role of citizens in driving the Mission at the centre of its projects and policies. In all there is a growing acknowledgement of the pressing need to understand the links between social disquiet and environmental pressures; what ‘marine citizenship’ might look like, and, simply, what are the different ways we experience the ocean, and how might we use our diverse knowledge and experience to make a difference?