2.1 Introduction
The European Commission has launched the Blue Growth Strategy, being the EU’s
long-term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors.
Much is expected from growth of the maritime sectors aquaculture, renewable
energy, blue biotechnology, seabed mining and tourism, contributing to the economic growth and creation of new jobs (Stuiver et al. 2012). If this growth takes
place, the distribution of marine space will become a delicate issue in European seas.
These activities require space. Although the maritime areas are large, these activities
often eye for the same sites, close to the coastline with good access to facilities.
This results in competition for space, already visible in (among others) the North
Sea area. Solving this problem requires maritime spatial planning and the development of creative and innovative contributions which at the same time can ensure
environmental sustainability. One such creative and innovative possibility is multiuse platforms, when two or more sectors join activities in same area, or even using
the same infrastructures. While multi-use platforms are accepted as a valuable
contribution to Blue Growth, the design and employment of multi-use platforms is
complicated. This is due to the fact that they involve multiple knowledge questions,
challenges for governance and issues of sustainability and that they require crosssectoral cooperation.
To overcome these complex problems – where technical, regulatory, financial,
environmental and socio-economic aspects are intertwined – stakeholders need to be
participating in the design and implementation of multi-use platforms. This is to
make sure that the designed solutions are not developed top-down by science or
policymakers but that they built on the knowledge and experience of various
stakeholders to come to feasible and sustainable solutions (Wenting et al. 2014,
2015). Comparable pleas for stakeholder participation are made in the European
directives on marine spatial planning (Aitken et al. 2016). A participatory approach
replaces linear models of knowledge generation which focus on scientists and
engineers in the design of new technologies. Inclusion of stakeholders from different
backgrounds can enable handling complex problems with multiple interests and
objectives (Stuiver et al. 2012; Pomeroy and Douvere 2008).
Participatory design values the perspective, knowledge, skills and involvement of
different categories of end users and other stakeholders (Wilkinson and De Angeli
2014; Murgue et al. 2015; Simonsen and Robertson 2012).
1 Participatory design also
embraces the two principles of non-linear knowledge generation and social learning.
The first principle acknowledges that knowledge is developed in a complex, interactive process of co-production with a range of stakeholders involved. The second
principle states that all one can do in complex and uncertain search processes for
sustainable designs with no ready-made solutions at hand is to experiment and learn
1 Other participatory design studies have focused on a broad range of subjects such as health
information systems (Wesselink et al. 2011) and medical devices such as wheelchairs (Berghöfer
et al. 2008), but also on agricultural landscapes (Pilemalm and Timpka 2008).
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M. Stuiver et al.
The European Commission has launched the Blue Growth Strategy, being the EU’s
long-term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors.
Much is expected from growth of the maritime sectors aquaculture, renewable
energy, blue biotechnology, seabed mining and tourism, contributing to the economic growth and creation of new jobs (Stuiver et al. 2012). If this growth takes
place, the distribution of marine space will become a delicate issue in European seas.
These activities require space. Although the maritime areas are large, these activities
often eye for the same sites, close to the coastline with good access to facilities.
This results in competition for space, already visible in (among others) the North
Sea area. Solving this problem requires maritime spatial planning and the development of creative and innovative contributions which at the same time can ensure
environmental sustainability. One such creative and innovative possibility is multiuse platforms, when two or more sectors join activities in same area, or even using
the same infrastructures. While multi-use platforms are accepted as a valuable
contribution to Blue Growth, the design and employment of multi-use platforms is
complicated. This is due to the fact that they involve multiple knowledge questions,
challenges for governance and issues of sustainability and that they require crosssectoral cooperation.
To overcome these complex problems – where technical, regulatory, financial,
environmental and socio-economic aspects are intertwined – stakeholders need to be
participating in the design and implementation of multi-use platforms. This is to
make sure that the designed solutions are not developed top-down by science or
policymakers but that they built on the knowledge and experience of various
stakeholders to come to feasible and sustainable solutions (Wenting et al. 2014,
2015). Comparable pleas for stakeholder participation are made in the European
directives on marine spatial planning (Aitken et al. 2016). A participatory approach
replaces linear models of knowledge generation which focus on scientists and
engineers in the design of new technologies. Inclusion of stakeholders from different
backgrounds can enable handling complex problems with multiple interests and
objectives (Stuiver et al. 2012; Pomeroy and Douvere 2008).
Participatory design values the perspective, knowledge, skills and involvement of
different categories of end users and other stakeholders (Wilkinson and De Angeli
2014; Murgue et al. 2015; Simonsen and Robertson 2012).
1 Participatory design also
embraces the two principles of non-linear knowledge generation and social learning.
The first principle acknowledges that knowledge is developed in a complex, interactive process of co-production with a range of stakeholders involved. The second
principle states that all one can do in complex and uncertain search processes for
sustainable designs with no ready-made solutions at hand is to experiment and learn
1 Other participatory design studies have focused on a broad range of subjects such as health
information systems (Wesselink et al. 2011) and medical devices such as wheelchairs (Berghöfer
et al. 2008), but also on agricultural landscapes (Pilemalm and Timpka 2008).
26
M. Stuiver et al.