Metageographies of coastal management: Negotiating spaces of nature and culture at the Wadden Sea

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Coastal management and nature conservation may be regarded as sets of profoundly spatial practices with decisive influence on the material and societal construction of coastal landscapes and seascapes. In this context, practices of coastal management are active in the spatial ordering of the land and the sea, oftentimes producing sharp lines of demarcation in place of a fluid boundary zone. Similarly, practices of nature conservation can play a significant role in the socio-spatial separation of nature and culture at the coast. This paper places analytical focus on the diverse socio-spatial imaginaries or metageographies and processes of boundary-making underlying practices of coastal protection and nature conservation. Interpretative analysis of a climate adaptation strategy for the Wadden Sea coastal landscape of Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany and interviews with key participants demonstrate the relevance of attention to multiple socio-spatial constructions of the coast in a policy-making context. It is concluded that policy strategies need to engage more explicitly with multiple cultural geographies of the coast, and the spatial implications of distinct stakeholder perspectives. It is further evident that both coastal protection and nature conservation constitute regionally specific and culturally situated practices, which cannot be addressed solely from technical perspectives, specific to individual disciplines and professional ways of working. Providing space for the emergence of new and alternative socio-spatial imaginaries of the coast may facilitate the future management of coastal change.

Original languageEnglish
JournalArea
Volume50
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)177-185
Number of pages9
ISSN0004-0894
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2018
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • boundary-making, coastal landscape, coastal management, metageographies, nature–culture, Wadden Sea
  • Geography

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Nachbarschaft – eine fragile Beziehung
  2. Education for Sustainable Development
  3. Entwicklung eines Interviewleitfadens
  4. Netzwerke von Instrumentallehrkräften
  5. Die Praxis der Citizien-Effektivierung
  6. Sozialpolitik als Geschlechterpolitik
  7. Segregation versus Inklusion/Exklusion
  8. Geschlechterpolitik als Sozialpolitik
  9. ZEIT zum Leben in Kinderinstitutionen
  10. Suburbane Atmosphären als Milieuräume
  11. Postural control in Parkinson´s disease
  12. Schulgärten – a model of sustainability?
  13. Suspending the Post-Communist Condition
  14. Mediensystem und journalistisches Feld
  15. Gamification and sustainable behaviour
  16. Cultural geographies of coastal change
  17. Kooperationsbeziehungen im JeKi-Kontext
  18. Governance for sustainable development
  19. Interacciones entre plantas y animales
  20. Thinking and Diagrams - An Introduction
  21. Charakterbilder und Projektionsfiguren
  22. Aspekte von Sprachwandel im Unterricht
  23. Per un umanismo di matrice relazionale
  24. Garnisionsstädte und Konversionsfolgen
  25. “Potentially the Pompeii of East Africa”
  26. Bio-cultural diversity in south America
  27. Sprachgebräuche jenseits des Sprechens
  28. Testverweigerung in DESI-Textproduktion
  29. Soziale Arbeit im Kampf um Anerkennung
  30. Bending gender, Deconstructing Binaries?
  31. Erziehungs- und Bildungspartnerschaften
  32. Meeting the challenges of global change
  33. Poststrukturalistische Hegemonietheorie
  34. Globales Lernen - Unterrichtsmaterialien
  35. Sustainable and Social Entrepreneurship
  36. Individuelle Förderung statt Selektion
  37. The quantitative organization of speech
  38. Lachen, weinen, schreien mittels Tastatur
  39. Nachhaltiges Unternehmertum im Handwerk
  40. Vision Statement for the Planet in 2050
  41. Psychische Erkrankungen von Lehrkräften