LOGO

This empirical study examines the chances, risks and opportunities of Deep Sea Mining. The impacts of a new setup of industrial branches in Germany towards a new cluster "Deep Sea Mining" will be considered.In the focus of this study are the following branches: Mining including Geo Technique, Energy and Chemical industry, manufacturing industry covering plant ingineering&construction, metallurgy, and different maritime branches.

Duration:
16 October 2017 - 31 January 2019

Research Team:
Dr. rer. pol. Tina Schneider, Dipl. Geographie (Head of project)
Dr. rer. pol. Jochen Tholen, Dipl.-Kaufmann,Dipl.-Soziologe

Funding:
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung; Universität Bremen

 

Deep Sea Mining (hereafter DSM) is a new pathway to satisfy the growing global demand for raw materials. Taking Germany as an example, our research project was launched in 2017-19. The hypothesis was that in an “Open Society” DSM must be accepted by the stakeholders: science, business, politics and the civil society. Insofar we have adopted the concept of the sustainable dimensions (economic/technological, ecological and social). The concept of sustainability was used to identify the stakeholders` perception of DSM, furthermore to develop the methodology (quantitative as well as qualitative) and to evaluate the results:

Nearly all respondents consider the currently inadequate means of assessing the ecological consequences of DSM to be the key risk. Half of the respondents expect that German industry will be making a profit from DSM within 11 to 20 years. Furthermore, a social debate on DSM is considered necessary, especially due to its ecological consequences, since this can socially legitimize (or discursively reject) DSM.

Duration:
16 October 2017 - 31 January 2019

Research Team:
Dr. rer. pol. Tina Schneider, Dipl. Geographie (Head of project)
Dr. rer. pol. Jochen Tholen, Dipl.-Kaufmann,Dipl.-Soziologe

Funding:
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung; Universität Bremen

Project Type:
Third-party funded project