Against a backdrop of growing pressure on marine ecosystems, efforts to protect the ocean are intensifying and diversifying. A pioneering thesis by Lucie Fortun as part of the french Ocean & Climate Priority Research Programme explores the contemporary forms of citizen commitment to the ocean and the central role of the ‘Blue Humanities’ in this dynamic.
by Carole Saout-Grit and Laurie Henry
Cover photo: Sound recording in Greenland by Lucie Fortun during the Arctic Prism campaign with Unu Mondo 2024 – copyright: Thomas Bour
New campaigns for the ocean
As more and more people realise that the state of the oceans is deteriorating, more and more environmental campaigns are being launched to protect them. Some of these campaigns are taking on new, more concrete forms, such as real experiments at sea. Commitment at sea goes beyond mere environmental concerns to forge a new form of activism based on physical and sensory experience.
In this context, understanding the transformation of contemporary environmental activism for the ocean is a key to understanding other ways of approaching maritime issues, ocean management and conservation, and how alliances between citizens, NGOs and scientists can be structured.
Citizen mobilisation of the ‘Sea Uprising’ movement – Brest, February 2022 © Lucie FortunThis approach is part of an emerging field of study known as ‘blue humanities’. Following on from the environmental humanities, the ‘blue humanities’ call for research approaches and practices to be linked, with the implementation of sensitive surveys, the production of new narratives, and consideration of the links and relationships between elements. This approach makes it possible to talk about the ocean from the perspective of the contemporary issues that affect it, but also to offer new ways of reading what may have affected it in the past.
Field surveys in ecologically sensitive areas
Lucie turned her career towards the sea in 2020, after completing her studies in history and political science at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. By taking a master’s degree in Society and Biodiversity at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle and an internship with the AMURE laboratory at the IUEM in Brest, she was able to learn about the diversity of forms of commitment, modes of action and structures working for the ocean.
Currently a doctoral student in anthropology at the LADYSS laboratory at Université Paris Cité, Lucie is working on a thesis that aims to analyse the dynamics of mobilisation through the evolution of awareness of ocean issues.
Lucie Fortun © Séverine Julien – AMURE 2021Using an interdisciplinary approach linking geography, ecology, anthropology and aesthetics, she plans to analyse the ways in which bodily experience at sea and political commitment are linked. Her thesis sheds light on the social, technical and organisational innovations that make it easier for citizens to get involved in the cause of the ocean, notably through case studies and series of interviews.
In particular, the study of mobilisation experiences in areas such as the polar oceans and overseas territories should reveal the diversity of forms of commitment and environmental sensitivities, as well as the influence of these mobilisations on the international scene.
A pioneering project in the field of Blue Humanities
This research is based on an original methodology, combining participant observation, interviews and mapping of mobilisations. It uses multimedia archives (videos, photographs, life stories and sound recordings) to document initiatives at sea and the stories of those who are taking action for the ocean, as well as sound recordings. This immersive approach pays particular attention to the sensitive dimension of these experiences in order to capture their ‘experiences’ and better understand how they are transformed into concrete actions.
Lucie Fortun’s thesis is supervised by Denis Chartier (Université Paris Cité, LADYSS), Joanne Clavel (CNRS, LADYSS), and Alix Levain (CNRS, AMURE). It incorporates the challenges of the PPR Ocean and Climateresearch programme, in particular by promoting the idea of the ‘ocean as a common good’, a framework in which marine resources are shared and protected for the common good.
This work aims to structure the field of Blue Humanities in France, contributing to the international recognition of French-language research in marine and social sciences. The aim of this interdisciplinary research is to shed light on the way in which citizen mobilisation can support and participate in ocean management and conservation policies. A better understanding of the processes by which experiences at sea and political commitment can influence each other, contributing to the rise of ‘oceanic citizenship’, will thus invite us to reconsider our relationship with the oceans.
Reference : Fortun, Lucie, « Oceanisation of environmental mobilisations: bodies, commitments, policies », thesis 2023-2026
Contact : lucie.fortun@univ-brest.fr