making of a beach Ecosystem services as mediator in the Anthropocene

• Published in: Akademisk kvarter Vol. 26; no. 26; pp. 34 - 47
• Main Authors: Säwe, Filippa, Hultman, Johan, Fredriksson, Cecilia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 24-12-2023
• Subjects: Annan samhällsvetenskap; Anthropocene; ecosystem services; environmental plan-ning; ontology; Other Social Sciences; post-sustainability; Samhällsvetenskap; Social Sciences; Social Sciences Interdisciplinary; Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap
• ISSN: 1904-0008; 1904-0008
• DOI: 10.54337/academicquarter.vi26.8248

In the Anthropocene, it becomes problematic to imagine a sustainable balance between society and the environment. This calls for post-sustainability modes of articulating human/non-human relationships. As an attempt towards an Anthropocenic understanding of society and the environment, we analyse how ecosystem services are mobilised in marine spatial planning in the south of Sweden. The study investigates how ecosystem services are understood and narrated in environmental strategy and interviews with environmental planners. We focus on seaweed and sand. These are two kinds of materials and potential resources that materially circulate and force together society and the environment in planning discourse and practice. Our findings show that although ecosystem services are readily understood as an anthropocentric construction, when mobilised in planning to manage an unruly nature they can be re-storied as an ontological mediator in human/non-human relations.