Ethics and Social Licence in the Blue Economy squarely confronts the vexing and urgent ethical challenges related to the economic and development potential of the seas. A work of applied moral philosophy, incorporating interdisciplinary elements in law, governance and social science.
Ethics and Social Licence in the Blue Economy squarely confronts the vexing and urgent ethical challenges related to the economic and development potential of the seas. A work of applied moral philosophy, incorporating interdisciplinary elements in law, governance and social science, it provides a multifaceted philosophical interrogation of social licence, explaining its complex relationship to concepts like legitimacy, social contract and legal licence. From this basis, it interrogates the ethics of the Blue Economy, exploring the key moral principles at stake, and how they play out in the unique context of marine industries, ocean ecologies, and coastal communities.
This book delves deeply into how the world’s oceans are increasingly seen as an untapped resource, with great promises of commercial development delivering profound goods to humanity. Yet this economic growth raises serious ethical questions. It partitions off resources that are currently open for all, threatens precious ecosystems, and impacts wildlife. The aspirational idea of the ‘Blue Economy’ aims to capture the ocean’s economic development potential, but also the need for that development to be done sustainably, equitably and legitimately. This need for legitimacy highlights the growing ethical importance of community acceptance and the ‘social licence to operate’. Yet social licence is itself an emerging and contested concept, giving rise to its own vexing ethical concerns. This book also offers a deep-dive into the many challenges posed and promises offered by expanding marine development.
This book will be of great interest to scholars from a range of governance disciplines (ethics and philosophy, law, policy, governance studies, social sciences) as well as those researching in the marine management, governance and policy space.
Part 1: The Social Licence to Operate Introduction: Ethics and Social
Licence in the Blue Economy Hugh Breakey, Charles Sampford
Chapter 1:
Understanding and ethically analysing the Social Licence to Operate Hugh
Breakey, Charles Sampford and Graham Wood
Chapter 2: Social Licence and Legal
Licence: Analysing the analogy Charles Sampford and Melea Lewis
Chapter 3:
What (if anything) can the concept of freedom teach us about SLO? Graham
Wood
Chapter 4: Four Types of Social Licence to Operate: The ethical and
operational risks of Authentic, Deceptive, Default and Tick-Box SLO
approaches Hugh Breakey, Graham Wood, Larelle Bossi and Charles Sampford
Chapter 5: Moving beyond the Social Licence to Operate: Locating Cultural
Licence to Operate within Country Larelle Bossi and Fiona Hamilton Part 2:
SLO and ethics in the Blue Economy
Chapter 6: Ethical values and SLO in the
Blue Economy Hugh Breakey, Rebecca Marshallsay, Larelle Bossi, Charles
Sampford and Katja Cooper
Chapter 7: Ethical risk in the Blue Economy
Integrity System Hugh Breakey and Charles Sampford
Chapter 8: Shifting our
current marine governance paradigm through ocean ethics and the development
of ocean cultures Larelle Bossi
Chapter 9: Not just for and against: Engaging
with the ethical complexity of stakeholders attitudes to offshore wind
developments Hugh Breakey, Larelle Bossi, Charles Sampford, Michael Mehmet,
Jennifer Algie, Freya Croft and Michelle Voyer Conclusion: Blue Economy and
Social Licence Ethical Futures Hugh Breakey and Charles Sampford
Hugh Breakey is Deputy Director and Principal Research Fellow in moral philosophy at Griffith Universitys Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law. Hugh has extensive experience in the application of ethical, legal and political philosophy to many challenging practical fields, including institutional governance, integrity systems and marine industries.
Charles Sampford was Griffith Universitys Foundation Dean of Law (in 1991) and Foundation Director of the Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (since 2004). In 2008, for his work on ethics and integrity systems, Charles was recognised by the ARC as one of Australias 20 most impactful researchers.
