Maria Paulsson

About Maria Paulsson

My PhD project is part of a transdisciplinary graduate school held by the Centre for Sea and Society, at the University of Gothenburg. It aims to explore the adaptive capacity of fish, fishermen, and management in a changing marine environment, both through differing PhD projects and interdisciplinary collaborative papers.

Drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS), my thesis focuses on knowledge production in the context of the Anthropocene, with Swedish marine management as a case study. I focus on how different forms of knowledge (scientific, economic, ecological) are incorporated into policy decisions. This includes examining how knowledge about marine management is shaped, negotiated, and enacted within governance structures to support sustainable practices.

I am interested in concepts such as managing nature through an ‘ecosystem approach’, balancing ‘anthropogenic pressures’ against ‘natural values’, and valuing nature as ‘ecosystem services’. What particularly interests me is the enactment of nature as a resource for human use and profit, and which human-nature relations are enacted when the sea is translated into a “container” of ecological, economic, social, and cultural values.