Aims and Scope

Aims

Journal of Coastal Sociology (JoCS) aims to become a leading international forum for the sociological study of coastal societies and maritime social transformation. The journal seeks to:

  1. Advance coastal sociology as a distinctive field of scholarship by promoting research that places coastal communities, social relations, institutions, and lived experiences at the center of coastal and marine studies.
  2. Publish high-quality theoretical, empirical, comparative, and methodological research on the social dynamics of coastal, island, archipelagic, and marine settings.
  3. Strengthen international scholarly debates on coastal social change by examining how coastal societies respond to and reshape processes such as climate change, blue economy development, marine conservation, coastal urbanization, migration, tourism, fisheries transformation, resource conflict, and coastal development.
  4. Promote critical scholarship on inequality, justice, and power in coastal and marine contexts, including issues related to blue justice, environmental justice, gender, class, ethnicity, race, Indigenous rights, coastal marginalization, and access to marine resources.
  5. Bridge local coastal experiences with global scholarly debates by encouraging studies that connect grounded empirical research with broader theoretical, comparative, and international significance.

Support interdisciplinary dialogue while maintaining a strong sociological orientation, ensuring that published articles contribute to the understanding of society, community, culture, livelihood, governance, identity, and social transformation in coastal and marine contexts.

Scope

Journal of Coastal Sociology publishes original research articles and review articles that contribute to the sociological and interdisciplinary understanding of coastal societies and maritime social change.

The journal welcomes manuscripts addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

  1. Coastal Communities and Social Life

The journal welcomes studies on coastal communities, everyday life, social organization, household relations, kinship, community networks, coastal identities, belonging, memory, place attachment, intergenerational change, youth, education, aspiration, and mobility in coastal and maritime settings.

  1. Coastal Livelihoods and Economic Transformation

The journal publishes research on fishing communities, small-scale fisheries, livelihood transitions, coastal labor, informal economies, maritime work, tourism, ports, logistics, coastal industries, livelihood vulnerability, diversification, adaptation, and the social consequences of coastal economic transformation.

  1. Blue Economy, Blue Justice, and Inequality

The journal encourages critical studies on the social impacts of blue economy policies, blue justice, marine resource access, coastal marginalization, social exclusion, displacement, dispossession, coastal development, marine conservation, protected areas, and the unequal distribution of benefits and burdens in coastal and marine transformation.

  1. Coastal Governance from Below

The journal welcomes research on community-based coastal governance, local institutions, customary marine tenure, Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge, participation, conflict, power, social movements, coastal advocacy, and relations among the state, market, civil society, NGOs, and coastal communities.

  1. Climate Change, Risk, and Social Adaptation

The journal publishes studies on the social dimensions of sea-level rise, coastal erosion, storms, flooding, tsunamis, environmental hazards, climate adaptation, vulnerability, resilience, managed retreat, relocation, climate-induced displacement, and community-based responses to coastal and marine environmental change.

  1. Culture, Religion, and Maritime Meanings

The journal welcomes research on maritime culture, coastal worldviews, religion, ritual, cosmology of the sea, coastal heritage, memory, oral history, cultural transformation, human–sea relations, symbolic meanings of coastal life, and the changing role of traditional knowledge in coastal societies.

  1. Migration, Mobility, and Coastal Urbanization

The journal publishes studies on coastal migration, maritime mobility, port cities, coastal urbanization, waterfront development, reclamation, translocal families, coastal diasporas, rural–coastal–urban linkages, and the social transformation of coastal settlements.

  1. Theory and Methodology in Coastal Sociology

The journal encourages theoretical, conceptual, and methodological contributions that develop coastal sociology as a field of inquiry. This includes comparative coastal studies, ethnographic methods, participatory approaches, decolonial methods, feminist methodologies, political ecology, digital methods, community-based research, and critical reflections on researching coastal and marine societies.

Manuscripts Outside the Scope

Journal of Coastal Sociology does not normally consider manuscripts that focus primarily on coastal engineering, physical oceanography, marine biology, fisheries stock assessment, hydrodynamic modelling, sediment transport, marine chemistry, coastal geomorphology, legal doctrine, or technical coastal management unless they make a substantial and explicit contribution to the sociological or social-scientific understanding of coastal societies.

Note: Manuscripts that fall outside the journal’s scope or lack clear theoretical, methodological, or broader scholarly relevance are unlikely to be considered for publication.