The role of the social sciences in capacity building in ocean and coastal management

Abstract

Consideration of the role of the social sciences in capacity building in ocean and coastal management is grouped into four main themes. The first part of the paper deals with the nature and record of the social sciences in studies both of and related to coastal management. The major fields are treated in turn, and include psychology, social anthropology, sociology, politics, economics, archaeology geography and history. Wider inter-relationships among these subject disciplines are also discussed, together with relationships with other fields of knowledge, especially the natural sciences. The second section deals with ocean and coastal management itself, viewed on two levels, namely, the technical management level concerned primarily with the physical interactions between human activities on the one hand, and the natural environment on the other; and the general management level which focuses mainly on decision-making, the nature of the organisations involved, and related policy and planning matters. The third theme is concerned with the specifics of how the social sciences feed into the capacity building processes, ranging from conventional discipline-based education, especially at tertiary level; through applied short courses for practitioners at all levels of management. The roles of the differing organisations involved are considered, together with technical developments, for example, in information technology. Finally, a number of issues are raised which arise from the preceding discussion. These include an assessment of the overall contribution of the social sciences at an academic level; the nature of social science applications in a management context; and relationships with capacity building processes.