More-than-human agency on the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

This master’s thesis explores more-than-human agencies on the Pacific Ocean. Currently, tourism research is insufficient to address complex sustainability and environmental challenges and needs new narratives to do its part in tackling these issues. The aim of this master’s thesis project was to gain new tourism narratives and to create tourism knowledge through an approach where humans are de-centered and the more-than-human agency is recognized. The focus was on the entangled and complex relationship between humans and the ocean during a four-month-long Pacific Ocean crossing from Chile to Palau on a Norwegian tall ship, Statsraad Lehmkuhl, in 2022. During the voyage, 86 international students from interdisciplinary backgrounds participated in a sustainability course (SDG200) organized by the University of Bergen. This research project was conducted through an ethnographic approach with additional qualitative interviews and document study. The variety of ways in which the ocean and human co-existence can produce different tourism realities and narratives regarding sustainability and climate change in the era of the Anthropocene was explored. The additional focus was on learning from a Pacific worldview and the connection Pacific Islanders have for nature. The research discovered how spending extensive time surrounding nothing but the vast Pacific while actively co-creating the journey with non-human actors influenced the way the students comprehend their connection with the ocean. Keywords: More-than-human agency, Pacific Ocean, Tourism, Anthropocene, Sustainable development, Talanoa