Dr Pamela Buchan’s PhD thesis entitled “Investigating marine citizenship and its role in creating good marine environmental health” is an interdisciplinary and holistic investigation of marine citizenship has been published. The research used mixed methods to survey, interview and ethnographically observe marine citizens undertaking marine citizenship activities. The data was used to update the definition of marine citizenship to better incorporate the right to participate in the transformation of the human-ocean relationship and the political aspects of active citizenship. Through this lens marine citizenship is more than a set of pro-environmental behaviours. The research identified ways in which all the basic human values can connect to the ocean and marine citizenship. It uncovered a special relationship with the sea in which marine citizens are emotionally attached to and dependent upon the marine environment; and feel thalassophilia, or love of the sea, towards its particular material nature and what it means culturally. Positive, sensory experience of the sea seems to underpin this marine place attachment. The findings signposted towards a theoretical basis for a marine identity which could be the driver of marine citizenship.

The research was undertaken at the University of Exeter and funded by the ESRC Environment, Energy and Resilience interdisciplinary pathway. The thesis is available here: Investigating marine citizenship and its role in creating good marine environmental health. For a quicker read, a summary report is available here: Citizens of the Sea – a PhD Thesis summary report.