hursday, November 6, 25, 13h>14h , online only.
Our guest is Pr. Wesley Flannery, Professor of Coastal and Marine Governance, Queen's University Belfast (QUB)
"Unsettling the Technocratic Fix: Toward a More Transformative Marine Spatial Planning"
"Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has rapidly gained traction as a cornerstone of marine governance, often celebrated for its integrative potential. Yet its swift adoption has been shaped by dominant discourses that frame MSP as a spatial and technological fix for advancing the Blue Economy. This framing reduces MSP to a technical exercise in zoning and spatial conflict avoidance, sidelining deeper contestations over public interest, equity, and the distribution of rights and benefits. This presentation will critically examine how such narrow conceptualizations constrain MSP’s transformative potential and exclude pressing socio-political concerns—such as poverty alleviation, climate adaptation, and environmental justice—from planning agendas. Despite claims of inclusivity, MSP has frequently been implemented in ways that marginalize communities and perpetuate fragmented governance. Drawing on Flyvbjerg’s phronetic social science questions, the paper investigates the trajectory of MSP: where is MSP going; who gains and loses, and how they do so; is this desirable, and if not, what can be done to make MSP matter? Central to the analysis is a focus on critical tensions within MSP processes. The presentation proposes that by unsettling these tensions we can reimagine MSP as a genuinely transformative tool for marine governance."
Wesley Flannery leads the Environmental and Social Governance Research Group in the School of Natural and Built Environment. He holds a visiting position at the University of Galway, Ireland. His primary research interests lie in marine spatial planning and issues of power and participation in marine governance.
Pour assister en ligne merci de vous inscrire/To assist online thanks to register :
https://cnrs.zoom.us/meeting/register/wJ0GEmKqTOyP0s1V4vpREw