Paper short abstract:

The presentation discusses the Blue Values Journey, a multidisciplinary project that advances ocean literacy and environmental education via anthropological research and community involvement.

Paper long abstract:

Environmental education is becoming more diverse and anthropology has a key role to play in diversifying it, and ensuring cultural inclusivity. The paper to be presented discusses the Blue Values Journey, a multidisciplinary project that advances multilevel ocean literacy in Africa. The argument is that ocean literacy is a multifaceted proposition that can benefit from anthropological fieldwork. The latter provides access to local communities and to what Pnina-Cabral (2014) calls, diverse forms of 'worlding' and to what Vivieros de Castro (1998) calls 'radical perspectivism'. The Blue Values Journey project is implemented in coastal South Africa and Namibia. It brings researchers, students and individuals from the private sector into contact and communication with indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), where they are able to listen to local stories and experience cultural 'settings' in person. The premise of the project is that, it is through a visceral, in-person encounter with supposed 'difference', that people from other social worlds can learn to appreciate and understand local valuation of the ocean and coast. The encounter may assist in resolving differences in opinion regarding ocean management. The Blue Values Journey presentation will visually showcase the outputs used to advance education regarding the ocean.