- Convenors:
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Luisa Piart
(Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Jeanne Féaux de la Croix (University of Bern)
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- Chair:
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Johanna Mugler
(University of Berne)
- Discussants:
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Peter Schweitzer
(University of Vienna)
Irus Braverman (The State University of New York)
- Formats:
- Panel
Short Abstract
The “blue economy” thrives on a global surge in ocean observation through new technologies, but critics highlight “sea-blindness”: wilfully ignoring many harms at sea. The panel addresses the polarizing dynamics of oceanic knowledge production between (full) disclosure, sustainability and profit.
Long Abstract
The ocean is increasingly seen as a frontier of capitalist expansion, where extractive forms of aquaculture, commercial shipping, deep-sea mining, and “sea-steading” fantasies coexist in sensitive marine environments. Central to these ventures is the illusion of total oceanic visualization. Digital twins, real-time tracking systems, and high-resolution screenings mirror the movements of vessels, commodities, wildlife and people across maritime borders as they measure and map kinetic ocean properties such as temperature, waves, and sea-levels across the globe.
This technological panoptic gaze on the ocean promises efficient management and unprecedented control. Yet, paradoxically, it coincides with what scholars term “sea-blindness”—a widespread failure to see or respond to the humanitarian, environmental, and labour injustices unfolding at sea.
We consider the notion of sea-blindness (with its implicit ableist framing) a useful provocation to unpack the strategic production of apparent transparency, which in fact masks systemic harms, such as refugee distress, ecological degradation, and workplace surveillance on board. New forms of ocean datafication do not merely reveal the sea; they shape what counts as visible, legible and politically relevant.
Drawing on ethnographic engagements with maritime labour, more-than-human seagoing mobility, marine science and infrastructures, contributions to the panel explore how the promises of all-encompassing oceanic oversight generate particular “border spectacles” (De Genova 2013) that nurture libertarian dreams and fears of (multispecies) invasions within fluid legal and political geographies. This panel questions how these high-stakes fields of sea knowledge are shaped by, and help produce, polarizing dynamics involving value-laden positions on ocean justice, conservation and benefits.
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