
Mads Barbesgaard
Associated Senior Lecturer

Awash with contradiction : Capital, ocean space and the logics of the Blue Economy Paradigm
Author
Summary, in English
Over the course of the past decade, the political economy of global ocean space has entered into a process of significant transformation. In this context, multilateral, corporate and financial attention dedicated to so-called ‘blue growth’ and ‘blue economy’ schemes has been extraordinary; consequentially spawning critical inquiries into the origins and motives behind these initiatives. Offering different analytical interpretations of contemporary blue economy politics, as well as their origins and effects, geographers have entered this debate with a strong focus on institutional discourses and policy agendas. Building on critical political economy of ocean space literatures, this paper emphasises instead the role of capital in appropriating and re-organising the seas according to its own needs. Our primary aim is to elucidate the territorial-economic tensions and geopolitical antagonisms that drive current trends by historicising the emergence of the Blue Economy Paradigm (BEP). The paper shows that a Procrustean political geography of ocean space increasingly poses a barrier to capitalist expansion.
Department/s
- Department of Human Geography
Publishing year
2020-07
Language
English
Pages
121-132
Publication/Series
Geoforum
Volume
113
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Globalization Studies
- Economic Geography
Keywords
- Deep-sea mining (DSM)
- Geopolitics
- Maritime geography
- Ocean grabbing
- Political economy
- UNCLOS
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0016-7185