MSP Research Network

PhD Marine Spatial Planning: The Impact of Marine Development on the Publicness of the Sea (working title) Ongoing.

PGCert Research Methods, Newcastle University 2017

MSc Town Planning, Newcastle University 2011

BA(hons) Philosophy, University of Warwick 2006

I am an ESRC funded PhD Candidate in the Architecture, Planning and Landscape School at Newcastle University. My PhD considers how marine spatial planning in the UK operates in relation to management of offshore development and assessment of the impact of such development on social and cultural factors. Four key themes have emerged from reviewing the academic literature in relation to the consenting of marine development projects, the assessment of social and cultural impacts within the decision-making process, and wider discourses on the, and publicness, of marine space. These are:

(1) the publicness of the sea;

(2) the publicness of marine governance institutions;

(3) the publicness exhibited within marine development decision making processes, and;

(4) the impacts of development on the publicness of the sea.

Prior to commencement of my doctoral studies I worked within marine development regulation. As a town planner I was struck by the similarities and differences between terrestrial and marine spatial planning in practice, particularly in relation to the conceptualisation of marine space and the social and cultural, and intangible, impacts of development at sea.