Doctoral Dissertation Research Domesticating the Ocean: The Work of Conservation in Southwestern Okinawa

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Doctoral Dissertation Research: Domesticating the Ocean: The Work of Conservation in Southwestern OkinawaMarine environments are important to manage in order to ensure biodiversity and human well-being. New technologies and policies to ensure these goals have pursued in varied settings, yet little is known about how they translate into to socially responsive and ecologically robust conservation practices. To address this issue, this research investigates the relationship between biodiversity-enhancing technologies, marine conservation, and perceptions of the ocean in southwestern Okinawa. There, international conservationists use marine technologies developed by national industries to manage the ocean, with significant impacts on the physical appearance of the seascape and its social meanings for coastal residents. The research will use ethnographic, interview, and archival research methods to investigate how conservationists, researchers, and marine laborers imagine and construct the ocean environment. The PIs will examine how new methods of management change long-standing perceptions of the ocean, and how scientific and nonscientific ideas about the ocean are integrated and reconciled. This research will provide new theoretical knowledge about the practices and consequences of international conservation, how different kinds of knowledges are reconciled, and how conservation practices are liked to national identities. Research findings will be disseminated to a wide range of audiences, in both English and Japanese. These findings will help scholars and policymakers to better understand how changes in attitudes toward and the management of environments take place, and how management can be improved.