Dr. Rebecca Borges 

In an effort to improve the governance of the commons and the embeddedness of humans in the environment, the concept of social-ecological systems (SESs) emerged and been further developed in recent decades. Among the principles of good SES governance is having clearly defined social and ecological boundaries. However, coastal-marine SESs are often unruly and pose a challenge to the definition of clear boundaries. Instead of trying to make marine systems fit into the conservation practice of line-drawing, recent research argues that new ontologies are needed to match aquatic systems' material conditions and the unique more-than-human relationships that permeate them: more-than-wet ontologies. The workshop Unruly and Unbounded: More-Than-Wet Ontologies for Governing Marine Social-Ecological Systems aims to bring together research groups in northwestern Germany that approach the topics of SESs and more-than-wet ontologies, as well as scientists and practitioners from some of the countries where these groups’ research takes place, to identify synergies between the two research themes, propose a research agenda to contribute to a potentially emerging field, and discuss potential applications of this thematic convergence in coastal-marine conservation. This workshop will foster exchange on the theory and praxis of marine governance and could lead to joint research projects, publications, and further events on the same or related topics.