Metageographies and Spatial Frames
Coastal Management as Situated Practice in the international Wadden Sea Region
Dr. Cormac Walsh
Duration: 2016-2020
Funded by the German Research Foundation. Coastal management constitutes a challenging task for coastal communities across the world. Coastal landscapes occupying the interface between land and sea are characterised by evolving relations between society and nature and complex interactions between geophysical, ecological, economic and socio-cultural processes. They are imbued with cultural and natural values and associated with diverse and at times contested rationalities of coastal and nature protection. This research project introduces a novel, innovative approach to addressing the spatial dimensions of coastal management and the implications of particular spatialities on coastal management practices. Taking seriously the proposition that coexisting heterogeneity, multiplicity and diversity is a constitutive feature of spatiality, the project will firstly examine the extent to which coastal management practices are regionally embedded and situated within the coastal landscape. Through comparative case study analysis the research will compare coastal management practices across the Wadden Sea and assess the extent to which dissimilarities are associated with local and regionally-specific cultures of practice and landscape characteristics. Secondly, recognising the socially construction of space as well as the structuring role of spatialities in social relations the research will examine the role of embedded spatialities in the collective construction of coastal landscapes and practices of coastal management. Two comparative cross-border case studies, located at the Dutch-German and Danish-German borders constitute the empirical focus of the research.
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