The High Seas, the areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction, are experiencing a starkincrease in industrial activities, ranging from fishing to deep sea mining to offshore oil and gasextraction. Marine resources are exploited unsustainably and the benefits of this exploitationare shared unequally. This suggests the need for a transformation, a shift in the deeper structuresof the system, such as underlying paradigms and mind-sets. Engaging with alternative futuresby employing imaginative scenarios can help to question current unsustainable trajectories,uncover alternate possibilities as well as offer aspirational visions of the future. In this thesis, Iargue that depictions of the future that are mere extrapolations of the present do not account fornon-linear changes and surprise, do not explore how current trajectories can be changed andconstrain the capacity to imagine possible futures. Instead, I use a method to address this gapby combining computational text analysis with a structured yet creative scenario buildingapproach. This process results in four science fiction scenario stories, which account for thecomplexity of the system, embrace future uncertainty and engage the imagination, thusdescribing truly novel, transformed futures. The scenario stories are then related back to currentrealities, using the concept of imaginaries, demonstrating that radically futuristic stories can betraced back to the scientific evidence they were based upon. In reference to these results, I arguethat engaging with creative scenario stories can open up transformative spaces to reimagine therelationships between humans and the oceans they depend upon. Further, the scenario storiespresented in this thesis emphasize the vastness of future option space, the plurality of possiblefutures and the subsequent need to continuously explore these uncertain futures from a diversityof perspectives, employing a diversity of methods.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-206366 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Lübker, Hannah Marlen |
| 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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