Presentation short abstract

Situated within feminist political ecology and arts-based research, this research attends to the place of emotion in marine governance through a case study of an environmental campaign resisting a decision made by the Irish government to grant a mechanical kelp harvesting licence in Bantry Bay.

Presentation long abstract

While marine governance has emerged to manage the global interest stimulated by the ‘oceanic turn,’ it largely hinges on techno-rational approaches that do not account for the human dimensions of the oceans. Focusing on the case study of an environmental campaign resisting a decision made by the Irish government to grant a mechanical kelp harvesting licence in Bantry Bay, my doctoral research attended to these human dimensions with the aim of better understanding the place of emotion in marine governance. Situated within feminist political ecology and arts-based research, this research employed policy analysis, semi-structured interviews, and autoethnographic snorkelling to collect data. Using the Listening Guide methodology to analyse data, the study revealed listening as a key tool for researching emotion, shedding light on the deeply emotional nature of resource conflicts, the centrality of emotion in ‘connecting with each other’ and ‘connecting with the ocean,’ and the importance of reflexively listening to our own voice as researchers. These findings led to an art-science collaboration that works with and through emotion to think about how to listen for emotion as a collective. Ultimately, by consolidating existing work on oceans, emotions, and governance, and making significant methodological and empirical contributions to these fields, this research serves as a springboard for future work that aims to respond to the question of, ‘Whose emotions come to matter in marine governance?’