Department of Geography, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
University of Bristol Law School, Bristol, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2023 Mar 13;18(3):e0280518. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280518. eCollection 2023.
Marine citizenship is a relatively new field of enquiry and research to date has focused on individual pro-environmental behaviour change as an expression of responsibility towards the ocean. The field is underpinned by knowledge-deficit and technocratic approaches to behaviour change such as awareness raising, ocean literacy, and environmental attitudes research. In this paper we develop an interdisciplinary and inclusive conceptualisation of marine citizenship. We use mixed methods to study the views and experiences of active marine citizens in the United Kingdom to broaden understandings of marine citizens' characterisation of marine citizenship, and their perceptions of its importance in policy- and decision-making. Our study shows that marine citizenship entails more than individual pro-environmental behaviours, and includes public-facing and socially collective political actions. We contextualise the role of knowledge, finding more complexity than normative knowledge-deficit approaches permit. We illustrate the importance of a rights-based framing of marine citizenship which incorporates political and civic rights to participate in the transformation of the human-ocean relationship for sustainability. Recognising this more inclusive approach to marine citizenship, we propose an expanded definition to support further exploration of the multiple dimensions and complexities of marine citizenship and to enhance its benefits for marine policy and management.
海洋公民身份是一个相对较新的研究领域，迄今为止，研究的重点一直是个人对环境友好行为的改变，以此表达对海洋的责任。该领域以知识匮乏和技术统治主义的行为改变方法为基础，如提高意识、海洋素养和环境态度研究。在本文中，我们对海洋公民身份进行了跨学科和包容性的概念化。我们使用混合方法研究了英国积极的海洋公民的观点和经验，以拓宽对海洋公民身份特征的理解，以及他们对其在政策和决策制定中的重要性的看法。我们的研究表明，海洋公民身份不仅仅涉及个人的环保行为，还包括面向公众和社会集体的政治行动。我们将知识的作用置于背景中，发现了比规范性知识匮乏方法所允许的更为复杂的情况。我们说明了以权利为基础的海洋公民身份框架的重要性，该框架将政治和公民权利纳入其中，以参与人类与海洋关系的可持续性转变。认识到这种更具包容性的海洋公民身份方法，我们提出了一个扩展的定义，以支持对海洋公民身份的多个维度和复杂性的进一步探索，并增强其对海洋政策和管理的益处。
