Dr. Klinke has a New SSHRC Project on Global Ocean Governance

Dr. Andreas Klinke recently received a SSHRC Insight Grant for his project entitled “Methodological Cosmopolitanism: Exploring Cosmopolitan Governance of Global Oceans”. Oceans are vitally important for human existence and civilization because they provide food and raw materials, produce oxygen, absorb greenhouse gases and serve as important transportation routes for worldwide trade. Given their importance, oceans induce an inevitable inclusiveness and prompt the cosmopolitization of the action and manner of governing the oceans. The idea of this research project is based on the premise that research questions as well as political and social questions in the context of any governing related to oceans cannot satisfactorily be answered by methodological nationalism. The research project asserts the necessity of making the ocean governance more attentive and adaptive to a cosmopolitan approach and less dependent on the intergovernmental model and the domination of nation-states.
In this light, the research project will provide two major contributions. First, the project will contribute to the advancement of knowledge by exploring and validating the theoretical, methodical and empirical conditions, factors and mechanisms for a turn towards cosmopolitan ocean governance. Second, the project will also be beneficial for policy makers, non-governmental organizations, economy and the broader public because it contributes to the improvement of ocean governance and its public understanding and acceptance.