MSP Research Network

Ralph Tafon has a PhD in Environmental Science, with a focus on Marine Spatial Planning. As part of his PhD, Ralph focused on politics, power and discourse theory, including resistance, governmentality, the post-political etc.) in EU and Baltic Sea MSP policy and practice. Ralph's current research focus is on (social and) multispecies justice, conflict and conflict transformation in the marine environment, with a focus on small-scale fisheries, offshore wind energy, coastal communities, tourists, etc. and planners' self-reflectivity. Ralph is currently involved in two research projects: 1) Taking Social Sustainability to the Sea 2019-2022; 2) OCEANS PACT 2020-2023 (https://oceanspact.eu/). Ralph's research interests also include climate justice, energy justice, Just Transitions, where focus is on understanding the place-based human (sociocultural, political and economic) and ecological (more-than-human nature) wellbeing effects of EU ambitions to speed-up and scale-up renewable (especially offshore wind) energy to realize Blue Growth and decarbonization ambitions, and more recently, to end dependence on Russian energy supplies well before 2030.