Abstract
The sustainable management of Blue Growth is an urgent issue for coastal states. Marine industries have rapidly expanded over the last two decades and this is projected to continue with the European Green Deal and post-COVID economic recovery policies. The intensification of Blue Growth could have adverse socio-ecological implications and must, therefore, be managed in terms of sustainability, natural resource boundaries, and coastal community well-being. Managing Blue Growth in a sustainable manner however, is challenging due to the longstanding inefficiencies and inertia of existing marine governance regimes. Adopting a transitions approach has been advanced as a way of steering regime change so that it is not inhibited by these persistent problems. This paper reports on four case studies that adopt transitions thinking and use the multi-level perspective as a broad analytical framework through which to understand institutional dynamics, drivers and responses within core marine sectors. Our case studies analysis reveals several significant pressures for regime change within key marine sectors. These pressures need to be addressed through the adoption of a transition management approach. By adopting this approach and engaging key stakeholders, national and EU marine governance authorities can develop sustainable Blue Growth pathways that minimize the impact of continued growth on communities and the marine environment, maximizing the implementation of sustainable practices and addressing issues such as biodiversity loss and climate change.
Highlights
The sustainable management of Blue Growth is an urgent issue for coastal states, with a growing emphasis being placed on the transformation of unsustainable governance and practices (Spalding, 2016; Bennett et al, 2019; Voyer et al, 2021)
This paper reports on four case studies that use the multi-level perspective and transitions thinking as a broad analytical framework through which to understand institutional dynamics, drivers and responses within core marine sectors
Adopting the multi-level perspective and transitions thinking as a broad analytical framework demonstrated how potential change can materialise in marine sectors from innovative niches and external pressures
Summary
The sustainable management of Blue Growth is an urgent issue for coastal states, with a growing emphasis being placed on the transformation of unsustainable governance and practices (Spalding, 2016; Bennett et al, 2019; Voyer et al, 2021). Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics, Vol 8, Iss. 2 [2021], Art. 8 use of the marine environment as it fails to account for sectoral interactions and the cumulative impacts on ecosystems (Guerry, 2005) Despite this being a wellrecognised issue, fostering the transformation of these regimes has proven to be difficult (Kelly, Ellis & Flannery, 2018). The sustainability transitions approach provides a conceptual perspective to assess and steer the transformation of governance systems It can help identify change drivers, conceptualise how existing regimes may respond to these drivers, how it accommodates new knowledge about alternatives approaches, how resistant it may be to innovation, and facilitate sustainable pathways to steer through these issues (Kelly, Ellis & Flannery, 2018; Rudolph et al, 2020). The paper concludes with a discussion of case study findings in relation to emerging EU and national policy and with reflections on the utility of the multi-level perspective
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