Coastal Images – Images of Coast:A Personal Story of Coast as a Research Object

Martin Döring (University of Hamburg and Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht)

Where it all started:

• I studied Romance languages and Art History at the University of Hamburg and at the Université 3 de Paris.

• Emphasis on linguistics and critical

2

• Emphasis on linguistics and critical discourse analysis which I finished with MA-thesis on pamphlets on comets stemming from the 16th

century.

• Started working on the research project Coastal Images – Images of Coast (1996-1998) financed by the GKSS- Research Centre.

Comet of 1618

The project Coastal Images:

• Interdisciplinary project in cooperation with the Institute for Coastal Research at the GKSS-Research Centre (today Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht).

3

Zentrum Geesthacht).

• Basic idea: Bring together scientists from the social sciences and the humanities to explore whether the topic of coast has been adressed.

• Managed to gather a small German-based coastal research group which met annually.

The project Coastal Images:

• My own work was on coast in the writings of Maupassant, Flaubert and Pierre Loti:

� coast as a site where changes in the narrative take place;

4

the narrative take place;

� coastal typologies which represent the charateristics of protagonists.

• Advertisements with coast as scenery:

� mainly insurances and banks which suggest safety;

� companies which secure energy supply.

The project Contested Natures in North Frisia ( 1999-2002)

5

The project Contested Natures in North Frisia:

• Investigation of the debates and conflicts revolving around the implementation of a national park in North Frisia.

6

Contested Natures in North Frisia:

• My own work was on how the conflicts were represented in the local mediaand how ‘the locals’ framed the heated debates:

� Coastal/Frisian identity was at stake: “We are not the Indians of

7

stake: “We are not the Indians of Germany” -> “God created the sea, the Frisians the coast”.

� legitimating the protection of nature in economic terms proved to be wrong;

� tourism as a conflict taming procedure did not work.

Emplacing Climte Change (2012-2015):

• Aim: to investigate how people perceive and assess the threat of climate change.

• Emphasis on how inhabitants of

8

• Emphasis on how inhabitants of holms, islands and one coastal area perceive their coastal environment.

• Mix of methods starting with document analysis, participant observation, interviews and interviews on the go (walking interviews).

9© Döring – FSP BIOGUMThank you very much for your attention!