Project description
How coastal communities may or may not use adjacency for their benefit
Scholars debate how to govern the oceans and who shall benefit from its resources, balancing the interests of local coastal communities with those of global, mobile seafaring entities. However, there is little innovation in addressing what adjacency to the sea means and whether it plays a role in how benefits are distributed. The ERC-funded AdjacenSEA project aims to explore how coastal actors use adjacency claims to assert their authority over area, access and benefits related to their seas and coasts. It will address articulations of adjacency, resistance logic within these claims, the discursive power of adjacency and the potential for these claims to reshape the role of local communities in marine governance. The project will draw on comparative case studies of coastal communities facing tourism-driven gentrification, offshore wind energy, and blue carbon restoration.
Objective
Background: Scholars have long grappled with the complexity of governing oceans and coasts, seeking to balance coastal inhabitants and seafaring nations with the dilemma: Who shall benefit from the sea? Privileging local, embedded coastal actors over global, mobile entities is central to the debate on adjacency; however, little conceptual innovation has addressed adjacency or how benefits are allocated.
Objective: AdjacenSEA investigates the power of adjacency claims employed by coastal actors to assert their authority over area, access, and benefits (AAAB) of their seas and coasts. To achieve this, the project poses four research questions to address: articulations of adjacency, resistance logics within AAAB claims, discursive power of adjacency, and the potential of these to reimagine the position of local communities within marine governance.
Approach: AdjacenSEA adopts an ambitious abductive research paradigm whereby its novel, synthesized theoretical framework of dimensions of adjacency, AAAB, and power will be evidenced through multi-site, comparative case studies. Case studies draw data from coastal communities navigating 1) tourism-driven gentrification, 2) offshore wind energy, and 3) blue carbon restoration. Data will be collected via mobile interviews and photovoice in addition to ethnographic fieldwork in three coastal regions. Using these innovative, participatory methods enables researchers to recognize the emplaced and embodied aspects of adjacency. Both thematic and discourse analyses will be used to answer the research questions.
Impact: One of AdjacenSEA’s groundbreaking ambitions is to build a rich (qualitative) dataset and innovate the tradition of discourse analysis by taking it out from behind desk and into the field. AdjacenSEA will advance our understanding of whether coastal communities can mobilize adjacency and how these mobilizations enable or constrain sustainability transitions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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9220 Aalborg
Denmark
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