Co-Location and Co-Existence in Marine Governance

Marine spaces are experiencing increasing pressure as multiple sectors—offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, fisheries, conservation, and maritime transport—compete for limited ocean space. In response, governance frameworks such as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) are increasingly expected to facilitate more efficient, equitable, and sustainable uses of the sea. In recent years, several policy ideas have emerged that intend to enable multiple activities to share marine space. These include the concepts of co-location and co-existence. Despite their growing prominence, there remains a need to better understand the design, implementation, and impact of the concepts. Co-location and co-existence are often framed as technical or economic solutions to spatial conflict, yet their success depends heavily on governance arrangements, legal frameworks, institutional coordination, and stakeholder engagement. As marine activities expand and policy ambitions for the ocean intensify—particularly in relation to offshore renewable energy, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable fisheries—there is an urgent need to critically examine how co-location can be designed, governed, and implemented in more just and sustainable ways. This thematic issue of Ocean and Society invites contributions that explore co-location as a governance challenge and opportunity in contemporary marine management. We seek papers that move beyond purely technical assessments to examine the legal, political, social, and institutional dimensions of enabling multiple marine uses within shared spatial environments. We also welcome contributions examining governance innovation and participatory approaches (such as the role of citizen science) in shaping more inclusive and adaptive forms of co-location in marine governance.  By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, this thematic issue aims to advance scholarly debate on how co-location can be better understood, designed, and managed within evolving marine governance systems. Studies that explore co-location and co-existence from a global south perspective are particularly encouraged.

We welcome conceptual, empirical, and comparative contributions that address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

1. Conceptual and theoretical perspectives:

• Differing interpretations of co-location and co-existence in marine governance.
• Co-location as a governance principle versus a technical or economic solution.
• Political ecology, governance theory, or socio-legal perspectives on marine space sharing.

2. Governance and policy frameworks:

• Legal and regulatory frameworks enabling or constraining co-location.
• Governance challenges in integrating offshore renewable energy with other marine uses.
• Institutional coordination across sectors and jurisdictions.
• Justice, legitimacy, and public trust in co-location governance.
• Cross-border governance and shared marine ecosystems.

3. Sectoral interactions and case studies:

• Co-location of offshore wind and aquaculture.
• Fisheries interactions with offshore renewable energy infrastructure.
• Marine living labs.
• Marine conservation, restoration, and spatial planning.
• Multi-use platforms and infrastructure in the blue economy.

4. Environmental restoration and ecosystem governance:

• Implications of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation for marine spatial planning.
• Integration of ecosystem restoration with marine economic activities.
• Marine protected areas and spatial co-existence.

5. Regional and comparative perspectives:

• Post-Brexit marine governance and fisheries management.
• Governance of shared waters and transboundary marine resources.
• Comparative international experiences of co-location policies and practices.

6. Governance innovation, participation, and knowledge co-production:

• Indigenous and local knowledge in co-location decision-making.
• Citizen science and community-based monitoring of co-location.
• Scenario planning and futures approaches to co-location governance.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Ocean and Society is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 100 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.