Mobilizing Ocean Equity: Global and Chinese Assemblages, Onto-epistemological Possibilities, and Gongyi Agency

Abstract

Equity is a broad value connected to the principle of fairness, often interchangeably used with “justice.” Recent developments in marine conservation policy and practice see increasing invocation of “equity” and “ocean equity.” However, static, uncontextualized, and uncritical understandings of equity affect academics and practitioners’ ability to address inequities and inequalities in global ocean governance. From an assemblage perspective, which sees governance as dynamic and multifaceted processes steered by a diverse array of objects and actions, this study analyzes the objects and actions mobilizing equity in global ocean governance. Here, “objects” refer to organized relationships among human and non-human actors, and “actions” are the ongoing work to maintain and assemble these relationships.This dissertation advances the understanding of equity mobilization in global ocean governance, the assemblage of relations, concepts, and agency steering global ocean equity, focusing on the Chinese state and gongyi (公益) agency. The research adopts a critical environmental justice perspective for understanding equity as multidimensional, multivalent, and emergent, addressing the critiques of rule and framework-centered analysis of equity by focusing on relations and agency steering equity in ocean governance. The chapters in this dissertation address the following questions: 1) How is equity mobilized broadly and by China in global ocean governance? 2) What onto-epistemological possibilities exist to advance global ocean equity? 3) How does gongyi agency steer China’s ocean governance/build the field of China’s marine conservation?This dissertation builds on and connects various theoretical traditions for understanding equity in ocean governance: political ecology, human geography, science and technology studies, ontological politics, and institutional analysis and design. The data collection was conducted in major international marine meetings, including the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) COP 15 (2020-2022), the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Fifth Substantive Session (2022-2023), and the 2022 China Ocean Gongyi Forum. These meetings are treated as important field sites, creating influential political spaces for diverse actors to negotiate new organizational orders for ocean governance. This dissertation relies on primary data from observation notes, meeting documents, and transcripts of recordings. Analytical methods included participant observation, discourse analysis, and qualitative and quantitative content analysis. In order to understand objects and actions organized for equity in governance processes, possibilities for reconfiguration, and agency enacting these relations, chapters in the dissertation collectively demonstrate the importance of analyzing the context, values, norms, multidimensionality, subjectivities, and social material conditions steered towards equity. This study finds equity remains a marginal concern in global ocean governance; while it is mentioned in various contexts, there is little evidence indicating multidimensional mobilization of equity, with distribution as the dominant dimension, followed by recognition and procedure; subjects of equity include Indigenous People and Local Communities (IPLCs), developing states, women, youth, small-scale fishers, climate-impacted, those left out by financial system. The analysis on China’s equity mobilization in global ocean governance shows China rarely mobilizes equity; the limited results indicate China frames equity within the context of international order and responsibilities under the UN ocean framework and sees developing countries as the primary subject of equity. The discourse analysis indicates the values and norms China mentions for equity do not fit with liberal internationalism; however, the mobilization of the Chinese traditional concept of equity reveals epistemological possibilities for non-state actors to steer the Chinese equity discourse toward fair treatment and equal social systems.The findings from the analysis of gongyi agency reveal their ability to foster adaptive management and transnational solidarity under China’s model for marine conservation—marine ecological civilization (MEC), and to steer the implementation of China’s ocean equity towards a more equitable and participatory manner. The results show that gongyi actors play a critical role in advancing China's MEC by bridging top-down state governance with community-driven efforts, facilitating multistakeholder collaboration, steering the materializing of technology platforms, promoting citizen science, and fostering community-based conservation. This demonstrates the importance of gongyi as intermediaries, advocates, and monitors, helping to balance MEC’s ecological goals with social equity. Lastly, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of field configuration practices such as performance, orchestration, and alliance as factors influencing the assemblage of ocean governance and offering possibilities for more equitable governance outcomes.