News article

Some of you will remember Friederike Gesing, who came and spoke at our conference in Whitianga. She has now published her NZ research. Here is the subtitle and an introduction to her book. For more information or to obtain it, please check out this link.

An Ethnography of Coastal Protection 

Working with nature – and not against it – is a global trend in coastal management. This ethnography of coastal protection follows the increasingly popular approach of “soft” protection to the Aotearoa New Zealand coast. Friederike Gesing analyses a political controversy over hard and soft protection measures, and introduces a growing community of practice involved in projects of working with nature. Dune restoration volunteers, coastal management experts, surfer-scientists, and Maori conservationists are engaged in projects ranging from do-it-yourself erosion control, to the reconstruction of native nature, and soft engineering “in concert with natural processes”. With soft protection, Gesing argues, we can witness a new sociotechnical imaginary in the making.