Abstract
This deliverable (7.4) of the SafeWAVE project focuses on creating a framework for the development and implementation of education and public engagement (EPE) programs. To accomplish this task, we begin by developing a generic framework that is applicable to any type of EPE program. Owing to the general nature of such an endeavour, our methodology rests primarily on a foundation of desk-based research in the form of an integrative literature review. This type of literature review gathers and analyses relevant documents from a wide variety of disciplines with the aim of creating new frameworks and perspectives on a topic. This literature review draws from peer-reviewed research in a number of academic journals in the disciplines of sociology, psychology, political science, public administration, education, environmental science, and multidisciplinary fields such as transition theory and management, science-technology-society studies, critical theory, and gender studies. After developing this general framework, we then apply it to the objective of creating a framework for EPE programs that focus on ocean literacy and ocean energy acceptability with a focus on wave energy.
The EPE framework for ocean literacy and ocean energy acceptability programs was codeveloped with stakeholders and value chain actors following interviews with key contributors conducted in the early autumn of 2021, as well as with a survey tool sent out to partners with whom the researchers had worked on earlier projects. In addition, tasks 7.2 and 7.3 of the SafeWAVE project detailed many lessons and much information which was gathered from both citizens and experts that were applied to the development of this framework, not least among them the necessity of utilizing an intersectional approach in the program’s creation and evaluation.
The framework for ocean literacy and ocean energy acceptability programs culminates in a documented methodological approach for the creation of tailored ocean literacy programs for individual ocean energy projects with a focus on wave energy. This task will be the objective of deliverable 7.5.