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Blending Environmental Humanities and Policy Studies: A Narrative Analysis Approach to Hybrid Scholarship on the Coast

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Researching People and the Sea

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Abstract

In this chapter, I reflect on the challenges and opportunities of hybrid scholarship through a retrospective assessment of my interdisciplinary narrative analysis approach. My project compared the linked social, environmental and political dynamics on the Bulgarian Black Sea and Yorkshire North Sea shores. I drew on a series of narratives in each context, derived from participant interviews, media articles, historical documents and literary texts. To analyse them, I developed a narrative approach situated between the social sciences and humanities. This chapter describes my approach to working with narratives and outlines the epistemological and institutional challenges I encountered. In this way, the chapter offers an insight into narrative analysis methods and some potential benefits and solutions for conducting interdisciplinary research on the coast.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There exists a wealth of research on the distinction between multi-, trans- or interdisciplinarity in hybrid research (see, for example, Klein 2010 or Lury 2018) but this discussion is beyond the scope of my chapter. I refer to my own work as either ‘hybrid’ in the general sense or as ‘interdisciplinary’ because of the focus I place on integrating, linking and blending approaches across and between disciplines.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the funding I received for my research from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through my doctoral training network (grant agreement no. 642935). I also wish to express especial thanks to Madeleine, Carole, Jeremy and Kristen (the editors of this volume) for their constructive feedback, encouragement and patience throughout the process. Finally, I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers of my chapter, whose advice significantly strengthened this text in its final version.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany

    Anna S. Antonova

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  1. Anna S. Antonova
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Correspondence to Anna S. Antonova .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ruralis – Institute for Rural and Regional Research, Trondheim, Norway

    Madeleine Gustavsson

  2. Global Environmental Justice Group, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Carole S. White

  3. Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Jeremy Phillipson

  4. Centre for Blue Governance, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Kristen Ounanian

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Antonova, A.S. (2021). Blending Environmental Humanities and Policy Studies: A Narrative Analysis Approach to Hybrid Scholarship on the Coast. In: Gustavsson, M., White, C.S., Phillipson, J., Ounanian, K. (eds) Researching People and the Sea. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59601-9_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59601-9_13

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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