In the last 50 years, the ocean has been experiencing a rapid increase in human use and exploitation, which is gradually decreasing ocean resilience. This “Blue Acceleration” calls for a reconsideration of the ocean as a political and economic arena. One suggestion for doing so is to replace the growth paradigm underlying the current ocean economy with a philosophy of “Blue Degrowth”. Using ocean Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) as a case study, I employ Science-Fiction prototyping to explore how “seeds” of post-growth thinking in current governance frameworks for ABNJ might transform the ocean economy beyond national jurisdiction to an ocean economy beyond growth. In this thesis, I develop a coherent post-growth future scenario for ABNJ (Mare Autonomia) meant to challenge the dominant Mare Liberum (freedom of the seas) imaginary of open ocean governance. The scenario consists of four SciFi short stories each touching on different parts of the ocean economy (shipping, fishing, marine biotechnology, and deep-sea mining) and a prototype ocean treaty that describes the governance principles underlying this future. Subjecting the scenario to experts allowed me to map the transformation from the present to the future using the three horizons framework, but also showed that perceptions of Mare Autonomia are widely affected by collectively-held imaginaries about both ocean and post-growth governance. By analysing this transformation further, I thus uncovered 1) aspects of the imaginary linked to the dominant growth paradigm hindering interviewees from seeing Mare Autonomia as a plausible ocean future, and 2) common post-growth governance tropes that become problematic when applied to an open ocean context. The thesis ends with a reflection on the power of imagination for both envisioning radically different futures and in rethinking how the story of our present reality is told. Alternative visions of the future are not inherently less plausible than the status quo. In realising this, we might also improve our capabilities in critically reflecting over the stories told about our present.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-231690 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Krusberg, Tilde |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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