The Ocean Diplomacy Ethnography (ODIPE) initiative sparked from  the encounter between a group of young researchers in marine social sciences and a very dense political and diplomatic sequence on oceans that raised questions about  ocean litteracy, academic understanding, and their relationships with ocean planning and conservation at international scale (Ocean Decade coordinated by UNESCO’s International Oceanographic Commission, a series of major diplomatic events, including the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Ocean in Nice in June 2025, etc.). At a time of  multilateralism weakening, perspectives of an increasing exploitation  of marine environments, as well as a growing understanding of the ocean’s major role in regulating the climate and maintaining the necessary conditions for life, our questions are the following : how are diplomatic activities aimed at protecting the oceans shaped in concrete terms, and within what network of constraints? Who chooses to participate to this and why? What people and/or beings, what conceptions of the world and what affects are involved? In other words, does ocean diplomacy have a particular unity, characteristics and trajectory? With the support of the OMER research group, various CNRS institutes and the École normale supérieure – PSL, and with the help of numerous partners, ODIPE aims to document these different issues through qualitative research, culminating in a collaborative ethnography of UNOC 3 in Nice and all the events and mobilisations associated with it. This website gives you an insight into our team, our current research initiatives and our analyses.

The ODIPE research team brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers interested in ocean governance, diplomacy and environmental policy from social science perspectives. The team, with members from  several institutions in France, Australia and Germany, investigates how knowledges and representations of the oceans translate between academic, political and civil society spheres at key diplomatic events such as the UN Oceans Conference. Collective expertise spans sociology, anthropology, geography, marine sciences, political sciences, and environmental humanities,creating a unique research group  that analyzes the social construction of ocean spaces and the power dynamics shaping contemporary ocean governance. Meet the team >>>