Marine & coastal social sciences
The communities that make up human society are not alien to the natural environment; in fact, our perceptions and actions on the ecosystem deeply affect it. Sociology, economics and culture help us to understand the origin of these deep and inevitable connections between ecology and society and to measure and modulate their impact.
The group of Marine & Coastal Social Sciences, also called MARSOCIAL, is the only group at the IIM focused on social sciences. The group combines its studies in sociology, economics and social psychology with the research on marine and coastal resources carried out in our department of Ecology and Marine Resources. In this way, it manages to broaden the ecosystemic approach to a perspective that also includes a human dimension.
This new way of exploring the ecosystem allows us to define and evaluate marine ecosystems in order to subsequently analyse, from a social point of view, mechanisms that favour the conservation, protection and rehabilitation of such ecosystems, the protection of natural and cultural heritage, and the formulation of more realistic and reliable strategies for mitigation and adaptation to the impacts derived from global change.
MARSOCIAL's work focuses on various key issues for the management of marine resources from a social perspective. On the one hand, it studies the relationship between society and fisheries as socio-ecological systems, exploring their governance, the social participation systems they implement and other socio-economic and cultural aspects of fishing, both commercial and recreational. With a broader focus, they also study the marine food value chain, with lines focused on traceability and the food market. Moving away from food resources, the group's research also explores the relationship between society and the environment through environmental economics, carrying out economic valuations of natural resources and considering, in a transversal way, the impact of climate change. Finally, renewable energies, especially offshore wind, are also part of the study field, investigating their social perception and impact on coastal communities.
Finally, in addition to developing its own lines of research, the MARSOCIAL team is emerging as a transdisciplinary group, which actively seeks collaboration with other research teams, both from the IIM and from other marine and coastal research centres.
