In the sixteenth episode of the Ocean Governance Podcast Aron and David discuss two articles that aim to analyse complexity, either in terms of how law is nested in an affected by social realities and ‘materiality’, or in the form of a multitude of policy instruments and their potential inconsistency.   
   Complexity seems to be a perpetual challenge in marine management. Ecosystems are in need of delineation and simplification to be manageable, and the same goes for social systems. Both the regulatory structures that have been intentionally designed to pursue various policy objectives and address management challenges, and the multiple way in which laws and other regulatory structures affect and are affected by social structures and processes in the surrounding society are challenging to fully comprehend.

The articles discussed in this episode are: 
 
O’Donnell, T., Coastal Lawscape: A framework for understanding the complexities of climate change adaptation, Marine Policy 129 (2021), 104532, doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104532 
 
Rouillard, J., Lago, M., Abhold, K., Roeschel, L., Kafyeke, T., Klimmek, H., Mattheiß, V.,  Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity across the Freshwater, Coastal and Marine Realms: Is the existing EU policy framework fit for purpose?, Environmental Policy and Governance 28 (2017), 114-128, doi.org/10.1002/eet.1793 
 
If you want to comment on the content or otherwise communicate with us, please do so by sending an email to: aron.westholm@law.gu.se. We hope that you will enjoy listening!

Epsiode 16 - Ways To Understand Complexity

Ocean Governance Podcast –
a podcast about ocean governance research
 
This podcast is dedicated to discussing recent publications from legal, social sciences and interdisciplinary journals dealing with ocean governance issues broadly construed. Being lawyers, we do this from a predominantly legal perspective but with a strong interest in the perspectives and contributions of other disciplines. 
 
The aim is to draw attention to interesting publications, hopefully to make them accessible and to stimulate further discussion in different forums.
 

Hosts for the podcast are professor David Langlet and PhD candidate Aron Westholm, and it is brought to you by the Ocean Governance Group at the Law Department, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. The group brings together various legal sub-disciplines, including law of the sea, EU law, environmental law, energy law, planning law and administrative law to bear upon current practical and intellectual challenges relating to human interaction with the oceans.