Blue Possibilities: Reading for Diversity within Grand Bahama’s Blue Economy

Keywords: blue economy, diverse economies, ocean governance, feminist geographies
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

In recent years, the “blue economy” has emerged as a powerful paradigm for pairing ocean-based economic development with environmental stewardship (Silver et al. 2015; Voyer et al. 2018). As blue economy imaginaries are translated into multi-use development projects with winners and losers (Winder and Le Heron 2017), some critics have argued that hegemonic neoliberal discourses associated with these projects serve to privilege large-scale capital-intensive uses of ocean resources, precluding transformative solutions (Barbesgaard 2018). However, feminist scholars caution that depictions of capitalist hegemony can, themselves serve to preclude anticapitalism imagination (Gibson-Graham 1996). Instead, these scholars seek to highlight the diversity of economic practices that exist within and alongside capitalist institutions (Gibson-Graham 2008, 2020). Invoking this diverse economies approach, this presentation will analyze how the blue economy is emerging as a strategy for redevelopment and recovery after Hurricane Dorian in Grand Bahama. Many of these blue economy projects are framed as advancing new ocean-related technologies and innovations, leveraging emerging scientific advances that are gaining prevalence globally to seek capital investments. Recognizing the potential for technologies to create openings for alternative possibilities (Boucquey et al. 2019), this presentation will discuss how we might highlight the diversity of economic practices that people are engaged in surrounding these new projects.