Geospatially Rendered Forms of Resistance: Offshore Wind Development and Marine Spatial Planning in New England

Keywords: ocean planning, marine spatial planning, marine governance, participatory mapping, enclosure
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Increased competition for ocean space associated with “blue growth” economic strategies is occurring amidst the recent rise of a new type of marine governance: marine spatial planning. Marine spatial planning emphasizes governance of ocean space through “ecosystem-based, area-based, integrated, and participatory” public planning processes. The tendency of marine spatial planning to advance state and neoliberal enclosure of ocean commons through territorialization remains unsettled, despite extensive theoretical and empirical research on the topic. Further, relatively limited research effort has been devoted to how marine spatial planning is engaged during offshore wind development conflicts in the United States specifically. Drawing on past investigations into the hegemony and governmentalities produced by the narrativization of marine spatial planning, I assess the potential of marine spatial planning to enclose ocean commons and shift power relations during offshore wind planning activities in New England. Using examples of resistance by the fishing industry to offshore wind development in New England, I explore how the ubiquity of spatial data influences strategies the fishing industry uses to contest claims to ocean spaces. I analyze collaborative partnerships between the fishing sector and the state to argue that the legibility provided by marine spatial planning is leading to a shift in the environmental subjectivity of fishers. I further argue that the dominance of evidence-based governance in offshore wind regulation, marine spatial planning's emphasis on participatory processes, and the mutability of mapped realities has reconfigured opportunities for participation in federal rulemaking.