Dr Sarah Lawless ~ AIMS@JCU Research Fellow: Ocean Governance

Dr Sarah Lawless is a marine social scientist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Ocean Governance. Sarah’s research is supported under the AIMS@JCU program, a strategic partnership between JCU and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Sarah is the first social scientist engaged under this program, where she contributes to a key research area of common interest - improving governance of changing oceans. Broadly, Sarah’s research is concerned with addressing the dual challenge of ensuring social equity and ecological sustainability in the governance of marine social-ecological systems. Sarah looks critically at how marine science, policies and interventions seek to improve fisheries, food systems and coastal environments, and the implications these may have human development outcomes. Her publications in journals including Global Environmental Change, Nature Climate Changeand Marine Policy illustrate the tendency for marine governance and associated interventions to prioritise ecological goals without attention to social impacts, including inadequate integration of local perspectives and needs. Sarah’s empirical research in the Pacific Islands region finds that even when commitments to addressing social inequities are made in policy and practice, approaches often misdiagnose the underlying drivers of inequity resulting in instrumental and symptomatic responses.