Many knowledges for One Ocean.
10 affiliations
- 1Department of Geography & Environment, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC USA.
- 2Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON Canada.
- 3Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
- 4Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
- 5Alfred Wegner Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.
- 6Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK.
- 7Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab, Beaufort, NC USA.
- 8Carl von Ossietzky Universitaet Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Institute for the Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), at Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
- 9Department of Geography, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France.
- 10Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract
The international ocean community gathered in Nice, France, in June 2025 under a One Ocean framing that unified participants around work for sustainable and equitable oceans. We explore ways that the One Ocean Science shared at the One Ocean Science Congress (OOSC) - including new data technologies promising 'complete' ocean renderings - makes space for difference in ocean knowledges and ways of knowing. Drawing on our work on new data technologies, oceans governance, and our participant observation at OOSC and the Third United Nations Oceans Conference, we explore three sites where universalism and difference were evident at the meetings: the propensity to render the oceans technical rather than political; the persistence of gaps as a defining feature of One Ocean Science; and sciences and knowledges incommensurable with One Ocean Science universalism. We highlight that One Ocean Science universalism is, perhaps counterintuitively, constituted through differences and heterogeneities in scientific practices and politics. Manifesting the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development's goals of ocean science that fosters equity and sustainability will require holding space for difference within One Ocean, including by interrogating and redesigning the epistemological infrastructure of One Ocean Science so that pluralism becomes structural rather than residual.
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BibTeX
@article{havice2026many,
title = {{Many knowledges for One Ocean.}},
author = {Elizabeth Havice and Noella J Gray and Oscar Hartman Davies and Nadège Legroux and Jessica Lehman and Emily C Melvin and Kimberley Peters and Teriitutea Quesnot and Alice Vadrot and Lisa Campbell},
journal = {Npj ocean sustainability},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s44183-026-00231-z},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928746},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Many knowledges for One Ocean.
AU - Elizabeth Havice
AU - Noella J Gray
AU - Oscar Hartman Davies
AU - Nadège Legroux
AU - Jessica Lehman
AU - Emily C Melvin
AU - Kimberley Peters
AU - Teriitutea Quesnot
AU - Alice Vadrot
AU - Lisa Campbell
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Npj ocean sustainability
DO - 10.1038/s44183-026-00231-z
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928746
AB - The international ocean community gathered in Nice, France, in June 2025 under a One Ocean framing that unified participants around work for sustainable and equitable oceans. We explore ways that the One Ocean Science shared at the One Ocean Science Congress (OOSC) - including new data technologies promising 'complete' ocean renderings - makes space for difference in ocean knowledges and ways of knowing. Drawing on our work on new data technologies, oceans governance, and our participant observation at OOSC and the Third United Nations Oceans Conference, we explore three sites where universalism and difference were evident at the meetings: the propensity to render the oceans technical rather than political; the persistence of gaps as a defining feature of One Ocean Science; and sciences and knowledges incommensurable with One Ocean Science universalism. We highlight that One Ocean Science universalism is, perhaps counterintuitively, constituted through differences and heterogeneities in scientific practices and politics. Manifesting the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development's goals of ocean science that fosters equity and sustainability will require holding space for difference within One Ocean, including by interrogating and redesigning the epistemological infrastructure of One Ocean Science so that pluralism becomes structural rather than residual.
SN - 2731-426X
ER -