ODIPE brings together a community of maritime social science scholars engaging in the collaborative ethnography of major international events relating to oceans. This collective work is organised around the group’s observations and analysis of UNOC3 (Nice, France, 2025), with the support of multiple partners and in dialogue with the wider ocean sciences community.
View of the audience in the One Ocean Summit 2022 amphitheater, Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, in the front row, credit: Amelie Laurin
“Carnaval de l’amer” on the sidelines of the One Ocean Summit, Brest, February 9, 2022, credit: Amélie Thomas/Côté Brest
Bloom and Pleine Mer protest against the operation of the world’s largest pelagic trawler, the Annelies Ilena, Saint-Malo, February 15, 2024, credit: Sylvie Vennegues/Le Télégramme
Our research areas
The ODIPE initiative involves researchers from a variety of scientific fields, such as anthropology, political science, human geography, sociology and sustainability science. Civil society mobilization, North-South relations, negotiations between States or socio-professional representatives, processes of appropriation of marine spaces, scientific expertise, mediation and media coverage, the place of non-humans in diplomatic arenas... our research also covers a broad spectrum. What unites us: the practice of ethnographic inquiry, which leads us to follow the social actors involved in ocean diplomacy as closely as possible. In 2025, many of these scenes we follow are set in France, around Paris and Nice.
News and analysis
Events
Ocean diplomacy, its observers and detractors
June 6, 2025
VIVANT(s), Bloom event
March 21, 2025
United Nations Ocean Conference
June 9-13, 2025