PhD project in Enhancing community resilience and adaptive capacity through ocean literacy: an action research approach to community participation in marine planning

Resilience is place specific and is determined by complex interrelations between biophysical, sociocultural, and economic circumstances. This PhD opportunity will shadow a 4-year ESRC funded project called ‘Transformative Research Actions for Resilient Coastal Communities’ (TRACC). For more information on the project see https://www.gre.ac.uk/articles/public-relations/greenwich-led-project-receives-ukri-funding-to-tackle-coastal-community-issues. This project explores and implements new transformative place based and values-based governance structures to support coastal resilience and sustainability across the 4 devolved nations of the UK. Part of the TRACC project will focus on developing an evidence-based approach to underpin values-based transformative coastal governance including increasing and enhancing ocean-climate literacy, integrating local knowledge and transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral knowledge exchange.

Concepts of adaptation and resilience are increasingly important when considering how people live and work around coastal and ocean spaces, particularly given the ongoing impacts of climate change. As a result, there is a need for ocean literacy to consider how ready people are to adapt i.e., what is their adaptive capacity in the face of a changing climate and coastlines. The capacity to respond to these changes varies globally and even nationally within the devolved nations of the UK. Whilst initially this term was linked to environmental spheres of research, there is now a call that the capacity to adapt to a changing ocean is directly linked to knowledge, awareness, behaviours, trust and transparency.

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (UN Ocean Decade) launched in January 2021 set out ambitious aspirations included calls for transformational relationships between society and the ocean (Claudet, 2021). Although a number of frameworks and concepts have been proposed as a way of exploring human-ocean relationships, most recently ocean literacy has been positioned as a key mechanism for change to effectively deliver global ocean governance. Recent years have seen a growing interest in the term and the need for further examination of the concept to more accurately encapsulate the complexities of human-ocean relationships in the face of numerous ocean challenges. Although initially grounded in formal education, McKinley et al (2023) propose there to be 10 dimensions of ocean literacy, including adaptive capacity. This relates to a person or community’s capacity to adapt and respond to changing conditions in relation to the ocean (climate change, change in ocean economies, changing ecosystem structure or function).

The PhD Student will work alongside two Marine Social Science Researchers that are focusing on Ocean Literacy for their part in the TRACC project, and as Case Study Leads for Northern Ireland and Wales. The objective of this PhD is to develop a deeper understanding of adaptive capacity in the UK in relation to ocean literacy and to investigate how this informs and influences the adaptive capacity of coastal communities in the UK. This will be achieved by evaluating and synthesising baseline levels of ocean-climate literacy, building on the data from the UK ocean literacy survey, exploring key topics within the TRACC case study sites and examining the literature on ocean-climate literacy and community resilience. Therefore, there is a call for research to understand what drives adaptive capacity and where attempts have been successful and not. This research will require you to look not only at individual adaptive capacity, as noted in the UK-wide ocean literacy survey, but also to consider the capacity of governance institutions and processes to adapt to change proactively, sustainably and in a timely manner.

For your application, you should consider:

• A brief theoretical framework that could inform the PhD project
• An overview of key literature
• Design aims and objectives that could be used to narrow the scope of the proposed project
• The research methods that would be employed within the project, suitable social science data collection methods
• An indicative bibliography and reference list.

A UK-wide team of researchers and coastal partnerships will collaborate to research key approaches and solutions to build resilience in coastal communities. The ESRC funded project is led by University of Greenwich, along with a number of different institutions and partnerships across the UK. The four year-long project, Transformative Research Actions for Resilient Coastal Communities (TRACC), will work with coastal communities in Mid-North Wales, the Humber Estuary (England), Lough Foyle (Northern Ireland) and the Firth of Clyde (Scotland), and lessons learned will be shared nationally through a new UK-wide ‘Resilience Assembly’. Coastal communities in the UK are faced with many challenges to their resilience, from sea-level rise, flooding, and pollution, to youth emigration, ageing populations, loss of cultural heritage, and unaffordable housing. Addressing these in an inclusive, holistic, and sustainable way requires a transformation of the way research and governance work and interact. TRACC will bring together different forms of knowledge from diverse social groups and movements, decision-makers, researchers, and other stakeholders to design new approaches together to tackle coastal challenges and help positively shift values, goals, and paradigms towards more sustainable and resilient communities.

This PhD studentship is positioned to run in parallel to one strand of the TRACC project focusing on Ocean and Climate Literacy. Specifically, the PhD will delve into Ocean and Climate Literacy to understand how it can be a mechanism for change to effectively deliver global ocean governance. The PhD will consider how ready people are to adapt to tackle coastal challenges and to transform towards a more resilient coastal community. This will look at a community’s capacity to adapt to respond to the changing conditions in relation to the ocean. The PhD will seek to understand what drives adaptive capacity and also consider wider issues of the capacity of governance institutions and processes to adapt.

REFERENCES

Claudet, J. (2021) The Seven Domains of action for a sustainable ocean, Cell, 184, 6, pp1426-1429
McKinley, E., Burdon, D. and Shellock, R.J. (2023) The evolution of ocean literacy: A new framework for the United Nations Ocean Decade and Beyond, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 186, 114467
McKinley, E., and Burdon, D. (2020) Ocean Literacy and Ocean Climate Related Behaviour Change in the UK – Work Package 1: Evidence Synthesis, Final Report for the Ocean Conservation Trust and DEFRA
McKinley, E., McElduff, L. and Ritchie H. (2024) Putting people at the centre of marine governance across the UK and Ireland: 20 years of society and the Sea, Ocean and Coastal Management, 255, 107235
Paredes-Coral, E., Mokos, M.,Vanreusel, A.,Deprez, T (2021) Mapping Global Research on Ocean Literacy: Implications for Science, Policy, and the Blue Economy, Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 648493

UNESCO (2018) Ocean Literacy Portal https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/about/

ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND OF CANDIDATES

Minimum of a strong upper second class (2.1) honours degree (completed or in the final stages of completion) in Marine Planning, Environmental Planning, Marine Biology, Geography or cognate disciplines.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL – INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLICANTS

Applicants should use the ‘Research Proposal’ section of their application form to provide a 1000-word maximum proposal (excluding references/bibliography) outlining:

* Proposed research question(s) aims and objectives
* The research context and intellectual significance of the project
* The research methods to be employed
* The resources that will be used
* A timeline; any safety or ethical considerations; and an indicative bibliography/references.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

• To apply, visit https://go.qub.ac.uk/pgapply (link to the QUB Direct Application Portal)
• Apply for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in ‘Planning’ at Queen’s University Belfast, School of Natural and Built Environment.
• State name of lead supervisor on application form ‘Dr Heather Ritchie’.
• State the intended SOURCE OF FUNDING on your application as ‘DfE PhD Studentship’.
• Include a copy of your CV and covering letter.

Funding Information

This DfE funded studentship is open to UK and ROI candidates. The value of an award includes the cost of approved fees and maintenance support (stipend). The stipend rate for 2024/2025 is £19,237. Further information will be specified in the terms and conditions of the relevant funding body.