Marine Science Studies

Project Outputs

Theorising the Blue Economy: Connecting Economic, Ecological and Epistemic Value in Coral Reef Research 2024 – Present

This project is based at the Konrad Lorenz Institute and builds on my PhD (see below). I use data from interviews with coral scientists to look in more depth at several ways coral reefs are important, and connect that to broader theories about how the ocean is valuable (such as those labelled ‘blue economics’). In particular I will look at how coral reefs are scientifically important and what makes them so ecologically valuable. See more on my project page at the Konrad Lorenz Institute website.

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Philosophy of ocean metabolism project 2023 – 2024

A visiting fellowship project on the concept of ‘ocean metabolism’, used by biogeochemists when referring to activity in the world’s oceans. Can the ocean itself be metabolic, or only the things inside it? This project aims to argue for the former. Funded by the Ocean Frontier Institute, and based at the Bertrand Lab, Dalhousie University. Publications from this project forthcoming.

See Vanessa Schiliro’s article about this project on the Ocean Frontier Institute’s website: Rethinking ocean metabolism to improve our understanding of life underwater.

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Marine Science Studies Project 2022 – Present

A collaboration forming part of my PhD project (and continuing after it), this is aimed at fostering connections between marine sciences and philosophical, historical and social studies of scientific practice.

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Understanding the role of value in coral reef science 2019-2023

A PhD project focused on the concepts and practices of coral reef science, particularly how they are shaped by the value attributed to coral reefs. Involved interviewing coral reef scientists and qualitatively analysing interview data in dialogue with scientific and philosophical literature. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and based at The University of Exeter’s Egenis Centre.

Paper: Marine Challenges as Philosophical Opportunities (co-authored with Vincent Cuypers).

Under review.

Paper: Exploring the socio-ecology of science: the case of coral reefs

European Journal of Philosophy of Science

Open access, available here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13194-024-00589-2

Science is shaped by the socio-ecological context it takes place in. Coral science makes this very explicit. Using quotes from interviews with coral scientists, I show how coral scientists have responded to the socio-ecological conditions of their discipline changing. Science, I argue, is aimed at sustaining a range of living systems simultaneously: scientists themselves, the organisms they study, the ecosystems, species, and institutions these form a part of. When these systems are threatened, scientific practice shifts to protect vulnerable parts of this multi-species system.

Thesis: ‘Understanding the Role of Value in Coral Science’

https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/134323

In this PhD thesis I explore the ways the value of coral reef shapes the activities of coral science. I start by looking at a key problem in coral science, the question of how to decide what counts as a healthy coral reef (or a coral reef at all). This is sometimes called the shifting baseline problem. Solving this problem, I argue, requires considering the value of the reef. In the next chapters, I explore ways different forms of value are incorporated into coral reef science, looking particularly at ecosystem services, intrinsic value, and value from non-human perspectives (the latter, using the case of coral reef bioacoustics – listening to reefs to understand them from the perspective of the animals that live there). In the final chapter, I present a socio-ecological view of science, where coral scientists can be seen as niche constructors, modifying environments in order to understand and perpetuate them. This explains why science changes when the environment does.

Paper: ‘Distinguishing regeneration from degradation in coral ecosystems: the role of value’

Synthese

Open access, available here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-021-03023-9

In this open access paper, I argue that telling the difference between a healthy coral reef and a degraded one is not simply a matter of collecting facts about the reef, but requires reflection upon the value of it. Many possible ‘baselines’ (depictions of a normal or healthy reef) can be constructed depending on the perspective taken on the environment, and what it is valuable for.

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Miscellaneous

Two, slightly different, writeups of the Egenis Centre’s belated 20th Birthday Celebrations. The Egenis Centre is a leading institute for research connecting philosophy, history and social sciences with the life sciences, and the conference celebrated the work done there, particularly in connection with former director John Dupré.

A writeup of the ‘Animal Research Unbound’ conference at the University of Exeter in July 2019, for the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice May 2020 Newsletter. https://philosophy-science-practice.org/images/downloads/newsletter/SPSPnewsletter13-May2020.pdf