transnational communities of seafarers hosted in the ports in the
English Channel experience their condition of wellbeing in the
hyperspaces of ports?
Name: Student ID: Supervisor: Second Reader Joseph A. Kiff 11262435 Dr. Tina H. Harris Dr. Courtney L. Vegelin.2
‘Between the Devil and the deep blue sea’, refers to a situation when facing two unpleasant, dangerous,
or risky alternatives, the avoidance of one ensures encountering the harm of the other. The term dates back to the early seventeenth century, in which the ‘Devil’ is the reference to a seam (a space between to deck planks) that margins the waterways and the ship’s hull, and needed to be made watertight through dangerous processes of being suspended on the outside of the ship. (Admiral Smyth 1867)
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1. Table of Contents
List of Key Terms ... 9
2.
Introduction ... 11
3.
Research Question ... 13
4.
Theoretical Framework ... 13
4.1. Transnationalism ... 13
4.2. The Hyperspaces of Ports ... 14
4.3. Time-Space Compression ... 15
4.4. Power Geometries ... 18
4.5. Wellbeing: The Capabilities Approach ... 20
4.6. Conceptual Framework ... 22
4.7. Operationalisation Table ... 23
5.
Conjunctions ... 27
5.1. The Political Economy of Global Trade ... 27
5.2. Field-Site: The English Channel ... 27
5.3. Containerisation: How the Box Shaped the World Economy ... 28
5.4. Flags of Convenience (FOC) Regime ... 30
5.5. Fracturing of the labour market ... 31
5.6. History of Mission to Seafarers ... 33
5.7. Maritime Labour Convention 2006 ... 34
5.8. Concluding remarks ... 35
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6.1. Epistemological and Ontological Stance ... 35
6.2. Unit of analysis ... 36
6.3. Sampling Strategy ... 36
6.3.1. Data Collection Methods ... 36
6.3.2. Questionnaire surveys ... 37
6.3.3. Interviews ... 37
6.3.4. Participatory Observation ... 38
6.4. Data Analysis ... 39
6.5. Methodological Reflections and Limitations ... 39
6.5.1. Quantitative Data ... 40
6.5.2. Qualitative Data ... 41
6.6. Ethics Considerations ... 42
7.
Capability Index Findings ... 44
8.
Anchorage – The Erosion of Time ... 46
8.1. Introduction: Theme of Anchorage ... 46
8.2. Fast Turn-Around and the Erosion of Time ... 47
8.3. Coming Alongside and the Demands of Others ... 51
8.3.1. Broken Rhythms ... 51
8.3.2. Schematics and contractual renderings ... 53
8.3.3. Untethered relationships ... 55
8.4. Make-Shift : No Substitution for Free-Time ... 56
8.4.1. Free-time ... 56
8.4.2. Turning a Blind Eye: Misrepresenting Time ... 57
8.4.3. Holding on to time ... 59
8.5. Contracts: Asymmetries of power ... 61
8.5.1. Trading Years ... 61
8.5.2. Passing Time ... 63
8.6. Power Asymmetries of Shore Leave ... 65
8.6.1. Appreciation of nature ... 66
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8.7. Concluding remarks ... 70
9.
Presence – practices in generating space ... 71
9.1. Introduction: the theme of presence ... 71
9.2. Stepping on Board: The Challenge of being Present ... 72
9.2.1. Ship Visits ... 72
9.2.2. Outsiders ... 73
9.2.3. Border-Games ... 74
9.3. The Act of Prayer: The Opening up of Space ... 76
9.4. Digital Presence: Together Alone ... 78
9.4.1. Port Chaplains as SIM Card Vendors ... 79
9.4.2. Intimacy and Solitude ... 79
9.4.3. Changing the Connection Back Home ... 81
9.4.4. Changing the Social Fabric Onboard ... 83
9.5. Concluding remarks ... 85
10. Conclusion and Recommendations ... 85
10.1. How do the transnational communities of seafarers hosted in the port city of Southampton experience their condition of wellbeing in the hyperspaces of ports? ... 85
10.2. What power geometries condition the capabilities of seafarers to engage with the social spaces of the port to improve their wellbeing? ... 86
10.3. How are different institutions and social-cultural structures involved in the conceptual formation of wellbeing? ... 87
10.4. What opportunities emerge to support seafarers as a result of taking a capabilities approach to their wellbeing? ... 88
10.4.1. Making Transnational Seafarers Visible ... 89
10.4.2. Extension of State and Civil Society Hospitality ... 89
10.4.3. Limit Contract Lengths ... 90
10.5. Recommendations for further research ... 90
11. References ... 92
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13. Appendix 2: ... 101
14. Appendix 3: ... 103
15. Appendix 4 ... 105
16. Appendix 5: ... 107
17. Appendix 6: ... 108
18. Appendix 7 ... 112
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Acknowledgements
The process of researching and writing this thesis has been a long and challenging passage that has opened my eyes to a hidden world. This research could not have been possible without the collaboration of the Sailors’ Society and all the staff and volunteers I came in contact with. In particular I would like to acknowledge Sandra who initially accepted my proposal, and Johnathan who generously gave up his time to assist me in ship visiting. Special acknowledgements must go to my supervisor Tina Harris, it was a pleasure to sit in your office and explore my ideas, your critical reflections have helped shape this piece of writing into something I am proud to call my own. Shout outs to my all my friends from the U.K and Amsterdam, who have put up with my eternal ramblings on seaborne trade. Sinead, as one of my longest standing friends your encouragement and passion for grammar got me over the line. Francesca, as my partner in crime you have been an invaluable person to bounce ideas off. Jesse, thank you for the gember thee and timely reminders that anything is possible. Ophelia, I still am surprised you put up with me over all these months in the library, but I wouldn’t change any of it. Finally, thank you to my parents and everything they have done to get me to this point, I am eternally grateful.
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Abstract
The centrality of cargo freight to contemporary life is unquestionable: 90% of all commodities are transported by the globalised shipping industry (Levison 2008). However, the estimated 631,267 seafarers who shuttle the projected 10.7 billion tons of commodities a year are rendered as an invisible part of the global economy - immobilised behind the hyperspaces of ports (UNCTAD 2018). Societies suffer from a condition of ‘sea blindness’: a collective detachment from the human externalities of sea-borne trade (George 2013). Developments in the maritime industry, particularly the role of transnational seafarers, have rarely been the focus of mainstream International Development Studies scholarship. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to understand the experience of wellbeing of transnational seafarers in the hyperspaces of ports along the English Channel (Southampton UK, Rotterdam NL, Tilbury UK). Nussbaum’s (2000) universal capabilities approach to wellbeing is used as an epistemological foothold to understand the social injustices prevalent in the maritime industry. Combining this with a critical theory understanding of time and space, this study reveals how capitalist functions have distorted the social use, meaning, organisation, and experience of time for seafarers. The key findings of this study are that firstly, seafarers experience the erosion of free-time on two temporal scales: everyday interactions become dominated by task; and years of life are traded away due to asymmetries of power between seafarers of different nationalities. Secondly, transnational seafarers taking up contracts of over 5-6 months are more likely to experience a psychological drift as they become alienated from themselves and their labour. Port chaplains, as primary providers of welfare, collaborate with seafarers to generate relational space through the practices of prayer and provision of internet access The conclusion of this study calls for a re-imagining of welfare provision that is decoupled from traditional religious ideas of welfare, and recognises the potential benefits of a formal, regulated multiagency approach to the problems identified.
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List of Key Terms
Transnationalism Transnational practices, spaces and ways of being are understood through the dimensions of mobility physical movement of people in a transnational space, and locality the ability to be rooted or anchored socially, emotionally and politically in a society.
(Dahinden 2010)
Wellbeing “The freedom to do and to be what is valued by the individual.”
(Robeyns 2005a)
Hyperspaces of ports “Deterritorialised production sites with universal qualities and functions, which cannot be detached from local references and political geography.”
(Sampson 2014)
Acronyms:
ABS - Associated British Ports
AOS - Apostleship of the Sea (Stella Maris) CBP - U.S Customs and Border Protection
ECDIS - Electronic Chart Display and Information System GMDSS - Global Maritime Distress and Safety System ECSA - European Community Shipowners’ Associations FOC - Flags of Convenience
ICONS - International Commission on Shipping ICS - International Chamber of Shipping ICT – Information Communication Technology
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IMAC - International Christian Maritime Association IMO - International Maritime Organization
ISPS - International Ship and Port Facility Security Code ITF - International Transport Workers Federation
MARPOL - International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships MCA - Maritime Coastal Agency
MNWB - Merchant Navy Welfare Board MLC - Maritime Labour Convention MTS - The Mission to Seafarers NZC - Dutch Zeemanscentrale
OECD - Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OED - Oxford English Dictionary
PKN - Protestant Church in the Netherlands PPE - Personal Protective Equipment SSoc - Sailors’ Society
SSoc CRN - Sailors’ Society Crisis Response Network SOLAS - International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea SPSS - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
STCW - The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers
TEU - Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit
UNCLOS - United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) UNCTAD - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
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1. Introduction
The centrality of cargo freight to contemporary life is unquestionable: 90% of all commodities are transported by the globalised shipping industry (Levison 2008). However, the wellbeing of the estimated 631,267 seafarers who shuttle the projected 10.7 billion tons of goods a year is rarely acknowledged in public discourse (UNCTAD 2018; George 2013). Seafaring remains one of the most dangerous fields of employment where accidents are prevalent and mortality rates higher than in comparable shore-based occupations (Hansen 1996; Walters & Bailey 2013; Sampson 2016). Moreover, the very characteristics of
cargomobilities (Birtchnell et al. 2015) - the commodity, the container, the ship, the port, the social
relations of production, the ocean and mobility - make the representation of the seafarers’ experience problematic (Steinburg 2015). And yet, levels of economic and social wellbeing experienced in the Global North, and increasingly the Global South, are dependent on the networks and flows of commodity supply chains carried along the mobilities of maritime space.
Harvey (2019) describes a world economy of uneven geographical development, in which:
“[a] convergence in wellbeing has not occurred and geographical as well as social inequalities within the capitalist world appear to have increased in recent decades. The promised outcome of poverty reduction from freer trade, open markets and “neoliberal” strategies of globalisation has not materialised. Environmental degradations and social dislocations have also been unevenly distributed” (p.62).
The United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 forms the current response to these emerging challenges at the global governance level. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) set to ensure a ‘social floor’ (Raworth 2012), and ‘planetary boundaries’ (Rockström et al. 2009) and a
framework of instrumental measures to achieving these goals. As detailed in the schematic below (figure 1) strong sustainable growth seeks to mobilise the efficiencies and freedoms of capitalism, but constrain its externalities through the triangulation of internalising the societal and environmental issues, and rebalancing the imperative for purely economic growth (Gupta & Verlign 2015). From this perspective, this study focuses on the global maritime industry as a keystone of the globalised, interconnected economic activity the sustainable development agenda sets out to transform.
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Figure 1: The relationship between inclusive development and sustainable development. (Gupta & Verlign 2015, p.435)
Focusing on the social externalities of global seaborne trade, this study will research the wellbeing of transational seafarers. Communities of transnational seafarers operate within a highly hierarchical, structured industry which profits from the inequalities between the ‘Global North’ and the ‘Global South’ (Urry 2014). As a field-site, the hyperspace of ports is the conjuncture of a complex assemblage of post-colonial power relationships, underpinned by a polycentric governance system of open flag registration, supporting ambiguous and opaque jurisdictions generated through a system known as ‘flags of
convenience’ (FOC) (Bloor & Sampson 2009). Such governance arrangements allow shipping corporations to leverage their power over the agency of the seafarer by limiting their freedoms and capabilities.
This study mobilises Marxist theories of time and space, as played out in capitalist relations, in combination with Nussbaum’s (2000) capabilities approach to give colour to the condition of wellbeing experienced by transnational seafarers. Despite seafarers from the Global South receiving high wages relative to their prospects back home, they sacrifice proximity to their family and community, political agency and citizenship (Lillie 2004). Working at sea features prolonged periods off-shore, long working hours, scheduling uncertainty and operation of dangerous machinery in changeable weather conditions (Alderton et al. 2004). This can lead to extreme fatigue, social isolation and depression (George, 2013). We have, according to the Maritime Foundation, succumbed to a condition of ‘sea blindness’, developing an ignorance of the global reliance on sea transportation. It is increasingly removed from our gaze and
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emptied of content and meaning, rendering the transnational seafarers invisible (Gerard 2009). To overcome this and see the labour involved in moving boxes through the sea requires us to enter ‘into a place and a space that is usually off-limits and hidden’ (George 2013, p.2).
2. Research Question
How do the transnational communities of seafarers hosted in the ports in the English Channel experience their condition of wellbeing in the hyperspaces of ports?
Furthermore, this study will attempt to deal with the following sub-questions, which will map across the chapters as follows:
1. Anchorage: What power geometries condition the capabilities of seafarers to engage with the social spaces of the port city to improve their wellbeing?
2. Presence: How are different institutions and social-cultural structures involved in the conceptual formation of wellbeing?
3. Recommendations: What opportunities emerge to support seafarers as a result of taking a capabilities approach to their wellbeing?
3. Theoretical Framework
3.1.
Transnationalism
The ethnographic literature on seafarers from the new labour supply countries, such as the Philippines, Bangladesh and India, has categorised them as ‘transnationals’ (Sampson 2014). Transnationalism can be understood as the ability to live physically, mentally, and emotionally in more than one place by engaging in cross-border movement (Mitchell 2000); the ability to transcend one or more nation-states (Kearney 1999); or, labourers who maintain ‘multi-stranded’ relationships with their ‘home’ societies (Basch, Glick Schiller & Szanton Blanc 1995). Transnationalism can be analysed in two ways: some scholars take the normative stance that this categorisation is a progressive advance on concepts of migration, establishing a real presence in multiple societies (Hannerz, 1990). On the other hand, a critique of transnationalism argues there are negative effects associated with assimilation into specific marginalised communities within the urban spaces of inner cities near the ports (Portes, Fernandez-Kelly & Haller 2005; Portes & Zhou 1993; Rafael 2000). Dahinden (2010) conceptualises transnational
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practices, spaces, and ways of being through the dimensions of mobility (physical movement of people); and locality (the ability to be rooted or anchored in a society). For the purpose of this research, seafarers will be defined as 'transnational mobiles': a multitude of nationalities who are highly mobile but exhibit limited degrees of locality, or embeddedness, due to the nature of their work (ibid., p.53).
The highly mobile life-worlds of seafarers leads to a state of ‘deterritorialisation’ (Deleuze & Guattari 1972), whereby social relations have the potential to be ‘opened’ and ‘disembedded’ from traditional or local systems of exchange (Gidden 1990). Within the structured spaces of ships and ports, their professional identity holds together and develops a new set of social relations based on trust, solidarity and reciprocity in attempts to deal with limited 'rootedness' (Grøn et al. 2013). The capabilities and freedoms of wellbeing (managed through these social relations) change based on the degree of circulation or stasis experienced by the seafarer. Within these transnational settings there are complex variations of groups who share the ‘here’, but individually have divergent connections to other places – the ‘there’. What holds them together is the fact that they are on the same ‘route’, in which they must find ways to manage social relations both at sea and at home in order to be a functional, and ultimately profitable, crew member.
3.2.
The Hyperspaces of Ports
Central to the definitions of transnationalism, encapsulated in terms such as ‘home’ and ‘host’, are the spaces and borders through which individuals pass. Seaports are the centralised nodes of just-in-time supply chains and are ‘to world trade what the circulatory system is to the body’ (OECD 2005, p.19). This has contributed to our experience of globalisation as time-space compression (Cowen 2014). As images of political-economic space, ports are complex, tangled mosaics of superimposed and interpenetrating nodes, levels, scales, and morphologies (Brenner 2004, p.66). From the perspective of the transnational seafarer, the ship is both a site of work and leisure, where opportunities to remove oneself from the obligations of duty are limited. Therefore, the port becomes a place of release within the confines and limitations of shore-time (George 2013). Throughout this study, I will use Sampson’s definition of hyperspaces to describe the ports – deterritorialised production sites with universal qualities and functions, which cannot be detached from local references and political geography (Kearney 1999; Sampson 2003).
Within the literature, ports occupy different functions and characteristics that map across different spatial temporalities. Firstly, they can be conceived as an absolute space in purely logistical terms, as a space for operation within frictionless supply chains (Hesse 2016; Orenstein 2011). Secondly, the processes that occur within these sites, increasingly achieved through technological and mechanical innovations
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(e.g. automated gantry cranes, standardised container boxes, and ECDIS (Sampson 2003)) create flows of commodities, data transfer, energy, employment, recreation and capital that occur in relative space and time. Ports become Janus-like, facing the sea as industrial and globally identical, and facing the land as multifunctional and locally integrated; transforming urban spatial and demographic structures (Rodrigue et al. 2017; Hein 2017). Thirdly, these spaces are heavily structured by immigration laws, customs and trade legislation, occupational hierarchy, health & safety regulation, and discrimination (Sampson 2014). They can exist as ambiguous jurisdictional districts, subverting territorial national state frameworks as
designated special economic zones (Easterling 2014). Therefore, as a relational space, individuals experience ports through personal journeys that incorporate various perceptions attached to their own identity, interwoven with associations of nationhood, borders, and expansion/contractions of global markets. Thus ‘mobile machines’, in this case ships moving within the hyperspace of port, presume overlapping and varied time-space immobilities (Graham & Marvin 2001; Urry 2003).
3.3.
Time-Space Compression
Time and space are basic categories of human existence. One way of conceptualising globalisation is the extent to which our perception of time, being sped-up, and space, collapsing in towards us, have reflected modern technological and social organisational innovations. Taking a materialist perspective, as
exemplified by Harvey’s (1989) building on Marx’s writings, the subjective conceptions of time and space are necessarily created through material practices and processes which serve to reproduce social life. Capitalism, as a revolutionary mode of production, has the dynamic quality of always modifying and reconfiguring these practices and processes. These have been geographically uneven, and contested across local, regional and global scales (Harvey 2019). A determining variable in this process of flexible accumulation is the 'turnover time of capital', defined by Harvey as "the time of production together with the time of circulation of exchange" (ibid., p.229). In simple terms, the faster "the capital launched into circulation can be re-captured, the greater the profit will be" (ibid., p.229).
This results in increasingly efficient configurations of both temporal and spatial displacement. Time horizons for realisation of investment are reduced through the 'spatial fix' of creating new sites of
"As space appears to shrink to a 'global village' of telecommunications and a 'spaceship earth' of economic and ecological interdependencies — to use just two familiar and everyday images — and as time horizons shorten to the point where the present is all there is (the world of the schizophrenic), so we have to learn how to cope with an overwhelming sense of compression of our spatial and temporal worlds" (Harvey 1989, p.240)
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production, accompanied by the growth of trade and direct investments, and the exploration of new possibilities for the exploitation of labour. This is what Marx termed the ‘annihilation of space and time’ in pursuit of profit (Marx 1973, p.534). The illustration below makes explicit the scale of transformation accompanying this process. Steinburg (2015, p.36) states, ‘under capitalism, the sea is idealised as a denatured and seemingly immaterial surface of latitude-longitude coordinates across which work (the displacement of mass) can be exercised with minimal resistance so as to enable the annihilation of space (or distance) through time (or speed)’. However, the reality of seafaring and 'cargo-mobilities' (Birtchnell et al. 2015) is a complex conjuncture of social relations, that flow from and between land, intersecting at the multiple levels of commodity, container, ship and ports, and labour processes. Therefore, it is important to establish how this affects the human experiences that are ‘folded through and enmeshed within’ the spaces of transporting containers (Bissell 2007, p.278).
Figure 3: The shrinking map of the world through innovations in transport which 'annihilate space through time' (Harvey 1989, p.241).
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According to Harvey (2004), there are three categories for understanding space and time. The first is
absolute space, a fixed, immovable grid amenable to standardised measurement. Harvey notes, ‘It is a
primary space of individuation […] Socially this is the space of private property and other bounded
territorial designations […] from which all uncertainties and ambiguities could in principle be banished and in which human calculation could uninhibitedly flourish’ (p.2). The second is the relative space, associated with Einstein's theory of relativity. Harvey notes, ‘space is relative in the double sense: that there are multiple geometries from which to choose and that the spatial frame depends crucially upon what it is that is being relativised and by whom’ (p.3). The third is relational space, whereby space does not exist in isolation or outside of processes that define it, instead the processes define their own spatial frames. Harvey states “an event or a thing at a point in space cannot be understood by appeal to what exists only at that point. It depends upon everything else going on around it […] A wide variety of disparate
influences swirling over space in the past, present and future concentrate and congeal at a certain point to define the nature of that point” (p.4). When different spatial temporaltities are considered, ‘wellbeing’ means something quite different in relational space than absolute space. Harvey points towards Deluze's (1992) reflection of Leibniz's conception of relational space, underlining an important goal of this study, to reflect upon the lived individuality of the seafarer:
According to Postone’s (1993) interpretation of Marx’s dialectical analysis of capitalist relations, the qualitative and quantitative commensurability of commodities based on labour is not a function of quantity or nature of the product, but of time. As referenced by Harvey, 'moments' are 'the elements of profit' (Marx 1967, p.233); it is the “command over the labour-time of others that gives capitalists the initial power to appropriate profit as their own” (Harvey 1989, p.231). Time, in this sense, is a determinate ‘abstract’ form of chronological time that appears as an external, imposed measure confronting the worker. Postone (1993) states “the form of wealth (value) and its measure (abstract time) are constituted by labour in capitalism as "objective" social mediations [...] Socially necessary labour-time is the temporal dimension of the abstract domination that characterises the structures of alienated social relations in capitalism” (p.191). Systems of time-discipline are enacted throughout the commodity chain to objectify the individual and contingent experience of the labourer and render it social and necessary. Due to the employer’s extraction of surplus value, the worker is therefore ‘compelled’ to go beyond producing commodities at the rate that would have been necessary in order to survive.
Shippen (2014, p.2) uses the concept 'colonisation of time', to describe the way in which “social use, “The important thing is to understand life, each living individuality, not as a form, but
as a complex relation between different velocities, between decelerations and accelerations of particles. A composition of speeds and slownesses on a plane of immanence.” (Deleuze & Guattari 1994, p.59)
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meaning, organisation, and experience of time are dominated by the needs of capital, rather than the needs of human beings”. This process of colonisation of time has extended the dominance of what André Gorz refers to as ‘economic rationality’ beyond the realm of production, drawing in free time and leisure
time as an integral part of capitalist accumulation (Gorz, 1989, p.6). The extent to which this type of
rationality, or to borrow Lukács’s term 'reified consciousness' (Lukács 1972, p.93), has left many individuals, communities, companies, and societies unable to conceive of alternative understanding or system of time outside of the logic of the market. As Rose (1978) highlights, Lukács’s use of the term reification is a conflation of the concepts of objectification (Versachlichung) and alienation (Entfremdung). Objectification is the process through which the worker’s own labour becomes an external object.
Objectification in and of itself is not necessarily dehumanising, it is only under certain conditions of production associated with extensive exposure to exploitative capitalist relations that workers begin to externalise their own existence. This condition is alienation; when the worker is confronted with a machine system, that exists independent of themselves, they experience their own consciousness as an external object (ibid., p.35).
Shippen builds on Lukács’s understanding of time and its effect on the individual and society, to declare ”the scarcity of time, a resource whose control and determination of meaning is dispossessed by the economic and social processes of capitalist systems, needs to become a social justice issue” (2014, p.8). Shippen sets out a political project to develop ‘time consciousness’, a shared consciousness of how capitalist processes have distorted the use, experience and social meaning of time, with the intention of critiquing it and developing alternative systems. In the context of transnational seafarers, their labour “is distinguished by its appearance as the continuation of a production process within the circulation process and for the circulation process” (Marx 1978, p.229). This redefines the bodily rhythms and lifestyles of seafarers, as the movement of containers are privileged over the humans who transport them. As stated by Steinburg, “with the ship-borne container, the abstraction of labour in the commodity form reaches its apotheosis” (2015, p.36). Therefore, in order to confront neoliberalism and the discourse of ‘there is no alternative’ (Berlinski 2011), this study will confront the conditions of relational time-space of the
hyperspaces of ports. This contests what is ‘socially necessary’, and asks how, by whom, and for whom these conditions are maintained.
3.4.
Power Geometries
As detailed above, the political economy of the shipping industry encapsulates the contradictions and paradoxes within globalisation and neoliberal ideology, whereby time and space are compressed as part of the capitalist imperative to shorten the time between investment and profit in order to maintain growth (Harvey 1998; Harvey 2007; Held & McGrew Anthony 2003). However, as critiqued by Massey (1993;
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1994), there are two sides to this formulation; it is insufficient to reference geography only in terms of movement and flows, proximity and the collapse of time and space. without an analysis of the changing content of social relations - that considers the implications of gender relations, colonialist relations past or present, or of the relations of capital accumulation (1994, p.167).
While Massey (ibid.) is in agreement that the recent changes in our perception of space and time are ‘propelled by shifts in capitalism’ (as outlined above), she challenges the extent to which capitalist logic of flexible accumulation dictates our experiences. Instead, Massey asks an important question, “for who is it in these times who feels dislocated/placeless/invaded?” (ibid., p.166). Accordingly, analysis needs to be given to the ideas of power and the access of power that are differentiated by a multitude of
independences - including race, ethnicity and gender. Massey (1999) claims that an ‘imagining of globalisation’, based on power geometries, should reflect the distinctive, even disparate and dissonant, narratives that co-exist across space and time.
Massey’s argument challenges the extent to which the experience of post-modernity, with its sense of disorientation/dislocation/placelessness, is total, or global. Pointedly, she argues that globalisation is also a process within which the colonial centre encounters the colonised periphery in more immediate and intense ways, and vice versa. Time and distance have always mediated the encounter of the other; however, there is a strong narrative in which the ‘loss of control’ that results from flexible accumulation and its spatial fix is a reversal in the direction of ‘invasion’ of past colonialism that stems from the confrontation with the other (1994, p.166). The global nature of the maritime industry represents new forms of closeness to the other, whereby individuals from the Global South are brought to our shores. However, their experience of such places will be embedded in their own perception of
dislocation/placelessness/power, that may be very different to our own. This study draws heavily from the literature produced by Sampson (2003; 2006; 2014) in her ethnographic study of transnational seafarers, which utilises Massey’s concept of power geometries. Sampson, in addition to evidencing structural issues of capitalist relationships, highlights issues of social capital, micro-familial relationships, and cultural capital that stretch and contract across time-space as seafarers develop transnational lives (2014, p.18-19). This study takes up Massey’s challenge and attempts to unpick the occupational identity of the seafarer, as a worker, and consider the ways in which ethnicity, citizenship and religious affiliation, in addition to capitalist relations, shape their condition of wellbeing.
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3.5.
Wellbeing: The Capabilities Approach
There are several competing ways of framing the wellbeing of seafarers. Firstly, in the global shipping industry, the institutional framing of wellbeing by the ILO (2008 [online]) conceptualises the wellbeing of seafarers as part of a discourse in the management of occupational health and safety:
This definition does not reflect the internal or qualitative experience of wellbeing; instead, it sees it as an outcome of managed risk through appropriate application of scientific methods that renders environments as technical, calculable, and manageable. Secondly, more broadly, the dominant postwar conception of societal wellbeing has been framed in economic terms – a single measure of the Gross Domestic Product to determine the health of a nation and its citizens (McGregor 2007). Thirdly, the wellbeing of the seafarer can be understood in a utilitarian framework, focusing on the ends in themselves as socially-necessary. The benefits to wider society of affordable commodity goods, movement towards service economies, and externalised environmental costs, can outweigh ethical concern for the working conditions of transnational seafarers (Davies 2015). Fourthly, investment in human capital is one of the variables corporations can limit to maintain profits. The seafarer’s wellbeing therefore becomes just another externality in the ‘race to the bottom’ (George 2013; Sampson 2014). Within a neoliberal ideology, the political and the economic are disassociated as the responsibility for improving wellbeing is shifted from the state or the corporation onto the individual seafarer (Davies 2015; Sampson 2000).
Within development literature, the concept of wellbeing remains ambiguous and abstract, with numerous interpretations and no universally accepted definition (King et al. 2014). McGregor argues that the concept and its dimensions must be clearly defined in order to provide a ‘secure epistemological and empirical footing’ before any attempt to measure it (McGregor 2004, p.183); Hermeneutic approaches, by contrast, constantly draw out people’s own self-interpretations and social contexts (Gough 2014). Within this debate, notable positions include: a non-universalist and dynamic interpretation (McGregor 2004); person-specific and capabilities-based (Sen 1985); gendered (Narayan et al. 2000; Nussbaum 2003); and a focus on people’s resources, agency, and pursuit of the living standard within their local context (Gough 2004; McGregor 2004; Narayan et al. 2000; Sen 1985). For this study, the capability approach developed by Sen (1985), and later built upon by Nussbaum (2000; 2011), will be used as a theoretical framework.
“the science of the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of hazards arising in or from the workplace that could impair the health and wellbeing of workers, taking into account the possible impact on the surrounding communities and the general environment.”
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The capability approach provides a framework to focus on the multidimensional aspects of wellbeing. Sen's (1985) approach highlights the difference between means and ends, and between substantive freedoms (capabilities) and outcomes (achieved functionings). It entails two core normative claims: first, that the freedom to achieve wellbeing is of primary moral importance; and second, that freedom to achieve wellbeing is to be understood in terms of people's capabilities, opportunities and substantive freedom for doing and being what they have reason to value. Nussbaum states,
This study takes up this interpretation of capabilities as the basis of a mixed methodological approach, while operationalising Martha Nussbaum's list of ‘central human capabilities’. This comprises 10 categories outlined in the operational table(section 3.7) (Nussbaum 2000).
Nussbaum’s capabilities offer a way of assessing qualities of basic decency or justice at the individual level, by asking, ‘what is each person able to do and be?’ These capabilities operate as fixed points to explore Massey’s concept of power geometries within the hyperspaces of ports. However, this study seeks to contest the liberal framework from which Nussbaum’s capabilities emerge. Nussbaum outlines a very specific concept of time - as a neutral constant variable which belongs to individuals, as isolated and atomised, rather than as a relational and flexible aspect of their experience. By mobilising Shippen’s project of decolonising time and focusing on time as a disputed political variable in the analysis of the lived experience of the transnational seafarer, this study can link back to the macro-level analysis of neoliberalism. It aims to challenge the capitalist relations that propel the time-space compression associated with globalisation, revealing the ways in which time is colonised by capitalist functions in unique forms onboard deep-sea going vessels. It concludes these cannot be untethered from the complex mix of colonialism, ex-colonialism, racism, and relative wealth that makes up the lived experience of transnational seafarers.
“This approach is pluralist about value: it holds that the capability achievements that are central for people are different in quality, not just in quantity; that they cannot without distortion be reduced to a single numerical scale; and that a fundamental part of understanding and producing them is understanding the specific nature of each” (Nussbaum 2000, p.18-19).
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3.6.
Conceptual Framework
Figure 4: Illustration of the conceptual framework.
The conceptual framework illustrates the relationships between the concepts, as the theoretical framework imagines it. Here, the focus of the research is the identity of seafarers as ‘transnational mobiles’; “a multitude of nationalities who are highly mobile but exhibit limited degrees of locality, or embeddedness, due to the nature of their work” (Dahinden 2010, p.53). The setting of the research is the hyperspaces of ports; “deterritorialised production sites with universal qualities and functions, which cannot be detached from local references and political geography” (Sampson 2014, p.17) . Moving into the centre of the circle, the phenomenon being researched is wellbeing, conceptualised as 10 capabilities
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(Nussbaum 2000). The key objective of this research is to understand how time-space compression determines the seafarers experiences of wellbeing. Therefore, there are two independent variables being researched: 1) time - categorised as labour-time and free-time, will be discussed using the thematic concept of anchorage (chapter 7). 2) Space - categorised as absolute space, relative space and relational space, will be discussed using the thematic concept of presence (chapter 8). Following the figure’s directional arrow, this study will use Massey’s conception of power geometries to analyse experiences of globalisation differentiated by nationality, rank, and religion in addition to capitalist relations.
3.7.
Operationalisation Table
Table 2: The following operationalisation table provides definition, dimensions and indicators used for the
key concepts of wellbeing and transnationalism. Nussbaum’s ten Universal capabilities are covered in this section, showing how they were operationalised as part of this research.
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Concepts Dimensions Variable Indicator
Well-being Life: Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length. Risk § Until what age do you expect to live?
Bodily Health: Being able to have good health, including reproductive
health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter.
Physical Health § Does your health or illness limit your daily duties onboard the ship?
§ How suitable or unsuitable is your ship accommodation for your current needs? § In the past 4 weeks, how often have you felt
depressed or anxious? Mental Health
Bodily Integrity: Being able to move freely from place to place; having
ones bodily boundaries treated as sovereign.
Crossing Borders § Please indicate how safe you feel working on board your ships?
§ Please indicate how likely you believe it to be that you will be assaulted in the future?
Privacy
Senses, Imagination, & Thought: Being able to use the senses, to
imagine, think, and reason – and to do these things in a “truly human” way.
Creative Expression § 'On board, I am free to express my views, including political and religious views.'
§ 'On board, I am free to use my imagination and to express myself (e.g. through art, literature, music) .
Political Expression
Emotions: Being able to have attachments to things and people outside
ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence.
Making Friends § While on board, how easy or difficult do you find it to enjoy the love, care and support of your family & friends?
§ In the past 4 weeks, how often have you lost sleep over worry/stress?
11262435 Joseph Kiff
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Well-being Practical Reason: Being able to form a conception of the good and to
engage in critical reflection about the planning of one’s life.
Contracts § 'On board, I am free to decide for myself how to live my life.'
Shifts
Affiliation: Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and
show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction.
Having the social bases of self-respect and non-humiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others.
Respect Others § 'On board, I respect, value and appreciate people around me.'
§ In your CURRENT OR FUTURE employment, how likely do you think it is that you will experience discrimination (e.g. because of your race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, or health)? Past Discrimination
Other Species: Being able to live with concern for and in relation to
animals, plants, and the world of nature.
Enjoyment of nature § 'On board, I am able to appreciate and value plants, animals and the world of nature.'
Play: Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities. Enjoys Recreation § In the past 4 weeks, how often have you been able to enjoy your recreational activities (leisure time)?
Control over one’s environment:
Political. Having the right of political participation, protections of free
speech and association.
Material. Having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the
right to seek employment on an equal basis with others.
Participate in politics § 'On board, I am able to influence decisions affecting my home community.'
§ Which of these applies to your home? § OUTSIDE of any employment, in your everyday
life, how likely do you think it is that you will experience discrimination (e.g. because of your race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, or health)?
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Concepts Dimensions Variable Indicator
Transnationalism Mobility: The physical movement of people in
transnational space that can result in circulation and constant flows of mobility.
Circulation § How does mobility during shore-time restrict or facilitate ways of being?
Stasis
Locality: Being rooted or anchored – socially,
economically or politically – to a certain place; it means developing/having a set of social relations at specific places. Which in turn are associated with specific national carriers of the people and place.
Trust § How do seafarers build trust between each other?
Solidarity § What sense of duty do seafarers feel towards other members of the crew?
Reciprocity § What patterns of mutually contingent exchange of gratifications do seafarers enact?
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4. Conjunctions
4.1.
The Political Economy of Global Trade
The term ‘sea blindness’ (George 2013) expresses the idea that consumer communities in the OECD countries have become detached from the conditions of how and by whom commodities are transported across the globe. This chapter contextualises the study, with a thorough review of relevant literature here enabling effective triangulation with the data in the analysis chapters 7 & 8. I use Tania Li’s (2014) analytical tool of ‘conjuncture’ to capture the dynamic elements of long and short threads of histories that meet in the field-site of the port (Southampton, Rotterdam and Tilbury). Li describes conjuncture as “peeling back layers of meaning and practice, and tracking relations across different spans of space and time” (2014, p.16). The five major threads are as follows: 1) the dominance of containerization in the global trading infrastructure; 2) flags of convenience and the act of ‘flagging out’; 3) the fragmentation of the maritime labour market to include supply nations from the Global South; 4) the ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention; 5) the history of seafaring missions and how they have positioned themselves as the principal welfare organisations for seafarers
4.2.
Field-Site: The English Channel
The research took place over three sites (figure 5). The first location was the port city of Southampton (UK) over a period of 8 weeks, including ship visits to over 50 vessels. This site was chosen because of the size of operations (the UK’s most productive container port), type of cargo handled (e.g. automobiles, bulk freight, oil, and natural gas) and the presence of a deep-water quay specialised for receiving the world’s largest ships (ABS 2019). Moreover, the Sailors’ Society has their international head offices in the city. The Sailors’ Society is a leading international NGO working on the agenda of ‘wellness at sea’ who I collaborated with for this research. The second location is Rotterdam (NL), Europe’s largest and busiest port, I interviewed port chaplains who form part of the regional network ICMA (International Christian Maritime Association) over a 4 week period.
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4.3.
Containerisation: How the Box Shaped the World Economy
George (2013) states 90% of all commodities pass through container shipping. The ascent of the container has its genesis in the hegemonic dominance of the United States as an industrial and military superpower throughout what is known as the ‘American Century’ (Levison 2001). However, its maturation and disruption of international trade infrastructure is part of the emerging story of a ‘rising Asia’, led by China through rapid industrialisation and urbanisation that dwarfs past periods (Harvey 2016; Miller 2019; Neilson 2019). Subsequently, the container box has contributed to the disruption of Fordist massproduction systems, facilitating the move towards Taylorism, post-Taylorism and “just-in-time” systems able to seek out new markets, flexible labour supply, and establish decentralised factory infrastructure. It has contributed significantly to the perception of time-space compression associated with the processes of globalisation since the 1970s. Proliferating what Marx termed the ‘metabolic rift’ as the societal metabolism becomes irreparably interdependent with the metabolism of nature (Foster 2000).
Figure Shipping density (commercial). A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems, showing relative density (in colour) against a black background. (T. Hengl 2019)
Figure 5: Map creates on GIS - showing two research sites across the English Channel, traditionally one of the busiest channels for marine traffic.
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Urry claims the growth in unprecedented rates of consumption is dependent on the ‘umbilical link’ between the consumerism of the Global North, and cheap, unskilled labour of the Global South that is realised through the slow but steady movement of these vast 'containers' of desire (2016, p.34). For example “in 2011, the 360 commercial ports of the United States took in international goods worth $1.73 trillion, or 80 times the value of all U.S. trade in 1960” (George 2013, p.66). Levison gives an impression of the distance, scale and speed covered by these containers:
A visit to a container port today reveals an unrecognisable industrial landscape compared to the ports of the 1950s. Warehouses, shipyards, and railroads have given way to high-fenced parking lots of stacked multi-coloured container boxes. The local crews of stevedores, moving sacks and pallets manually, have been replaced with towering automated gantry cranes supported by a reduced workforce. Similarly, advancement in naval architectural design has ensured a continuous trend towards larger shipbuilding
Figure 6: Shipping density (commercial). A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems, showing relative density (in colour) against a black background. (T. Hengl 2019)
“A 35-ton container of coffeemakers can leave a factory in Malaysia, be loaded aboard a ship, and cover the 9,000 miles to Los Angeles in 16 days. A day later, the container is on a unit train to Chicago, where it is transferred immediately to a truck headed for Cincinnati. The 11,000-mile trip from the factory gate to the Ohio warehouse can take as little as 22 days, a rate of 500 miles per day, at a cost lower than that of a single first-class air ticket” (Levison 2001, p.7)
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with increased tonnage to meet the demand for global trade, as evidenced by the Maersk E-class; 399.2m in length and capable of carrying 18,000 TEU (Ship Technology 2019). As detailed by Alberton et al., between 1970 and 1998 the tonnage of ships increased fourfold, while the turnaround times
decreased by ninefold, culminating in over 70 per cent of ships being turned around within 24 hours in 1998 (2004, p.104). The consequence of the shipping fleets taking on these dimensions is investment in ‘new moorings’ away from populous urban centres to the hinterlands and surrounding privatised space (Parker 2013, p.269).
4.4.
Flags of Convenience (FOC) Regime
The prevailing system within the open register is 'flags of convenience', whereby states licence their flag to profit-seeking entities, offering shipowners tax breaks and incentives, including the minimal exercise of labour laws and environmental regulation (Bloor & Sampson, 2007: 2009). The basic parameters of jurisdiction of ‘flagged states’ are outlined in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS):
By flying the flag of a nation-state, ships becomes mobile extensions of national sovereignty, breaking up the anarchic territory of the open sea. However, the expression of ‘genuine link’ between ships and a nation-state becomes the object of creative interpretation. The Flags of Convenience (FOC) regime is a systematic jurisdictional framework that allows for shipping corporations to exist with sanctioned immunity from national-state laws. This disembeds the economic interests from the political concerns by
emphasising the withdrawal of the state on the one hand (to enable market forces to work freely) and the rigid manner in which the state institutes these reforms on the other (Steger 2003). The FOC functions as an immutable mobile framework with reduced accountability and methods for enforcing compliance. Latour (1989) states that in order for one entity to dominate another, it has “to invent objects which have the properties of being mobile but also immutable, presentable, readable and combinable with one another” (p.6). No set of ideas can dominate and colonise other societies on their own; it is the consistent, endlessly reproducible transportable object, in this case the material instrument of FOC regulatory
framework, that acts as a vehicle for producing and reproducing the domination of the neoliberal ideology across the maritime spacel (Alberton 2004).
“Every State shall fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality to ships, for the registration of ships in its territory, and for the right to fly its flag. Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must exist a genuine link between the State and the ship.” (United Nations 1982)
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The decoupling of the dollar from the gold standard in 1971, and the oil crisis of 1973, propelled the industry to increasingly consider 'flagging out' as a solution to dwindling profits and pursuit of competitive advantages (Bergantino & Marlow 1997). By 2016, the top five countries in the world fleet were Greece, Japan, China, Germany, and Singapore, owning almost 50% of the world fleet (UNCTAD 2016). However, the five largest fleets in terms of flags registration were Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Hong Kong and Singapore. It is estimated that these flagged 57% of the world's fleet (UNCTAD 2016). As illustrated by Kahvexci and Nicholas (2006, pp.23-4), there is a logic in the FOC regime based on the uneven development of nations. The poorest states, with the most motivation to profit from operating a register, are also the weakest concerning administrative capacity, i.e. the poorest countries 'interfere' the least with regards to how the ship operators run their vessels . According to Sampson (ITF 1999), the process of reflagging is equivalent to the international relocation of factories in search of profit. The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) is explicit about the motivations of the FOC regime enabling shipowners to minimise their operational costs by tax avoidance, transfer pricing, trade union avoidance, and recruitment of non-domiciled seafarers. Through facilitating practices in wage
suppression, abandonment, unsuitable accommodation, non-compliance with health & safety and environmental standards the FOC regime is seen to uphold the dominant ideology.
4.5.
Fracturing of the labour market
The fracturing of the labour market within the maritime industry has been propagated by the imbalances between wage structures in the Global North and the Global South. Outside of the maritime industry, the perception of economists is the cost of transporting raw materials and commodities by seaborne trade has fallen to a stable level close to zero (Glaeser & Kohlhase 2003). However, internal to the maritime industry the motive to seek out profits and growth has generated a fracturing of the historical
demographics of crews. As evidenced by Alderton (2004), the majority of seafarers in 1970 primarily came from the OECD countries, and sailed under the flag of their home nation. The consequence of ‘flagging out’ affords ship owners and corporations immunity from the labour requirements, regulations and taxation of their country of origin.
Closely tied to advancements in air travel and telecommunications, the maritime industry moved towards a global network of outsourced manning agents, taking advantage of inequalities in wages, precarious workers’ rights, and surplus labour across the Global South (Urry 2018; Sampson 2014). This has been accompanied by considerable labour turnover with employers demonstrating little need to regularise ‘labour capture’ except in a few specialist and more highly regulated trades (notably oil, chemicals and gas) where competence and experience carry a higher ‘premium’ (Sampson 2014). Seafarers from traditional maritime nations (e.g. Europeans and North Americans) resisted these processes by initially
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framing labour from historical colonies such as the Indian subcontinent or the Philippines as
non-equivalent to their own. However, the economic rationality and development of certificates of equivalence has undermined this resistance. European nationals have retained their advantages in the labour force despite these processes due to government assistance such as training, tax incentives, and state subsidies to gain entry level positions as officers. However, the current complexion of crews has become dominated by seafarers from China, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine (ICS 2015).
Despite the fracturing of the labour market, the hierarchical structure of crews has remained stable. Table 2, provides an illustration of a typical crewing structure and direction of authority and power. Firstly, the governance of the ship is the primary responsibility of the captain; they are in the position of ultimate authority. This authority crosses the boundaries between working and living spaces. Samson highlights the extent to which the ‘captain is king’, due to limited interference in the social organisation of life on board their vessels from outside authorities while at sea (2014, p.79). Their role is one of intense pressure and accountability, mediating between the demands and objectives of the ship owners, port authorities, and their crew.
Secondly, beneath the captain the ship is divided between deck and engine departments, with the chief engineer, chief officer, and a team of senior officers. The chief engineer, technically of equal status with the captain but preoccupied with organising the engine room, does not carry the same influence. The chief officer plays a significant role in the management and supervision of cargo operations. Beneath these two figures are numerous officers who are enrolled to undertake the necessary managerial tasks on either side of the ship.
Thirdly, the bosun - a role which has direct responsibility over the deck ratings - is a key position, mediating between the chief officer and the ratings1 It can be a challenging position, balancing the demands and pressures that run down the hierarchy while supervising teams comprised of the lowest paid, longest contracted members of the crew. Bosuns take on the role of advocating for their ratings (examples being payment disputes, denied shore leave and safety concerns). Sampson notes, ‘a strong bosun is important to crew members and a weak, or scared, bosun is a bit of a liability’ (ibid., p.86). Fourthly, within the catering department, the chief cook takes on the responsibility for feeding the crew. In addition, as the galley is the focal communal area where coffee breaks and dining take place, they are 1 Definition: Ratings’ is a general term for a wide variety of skilled support roles on ship below the rank of officers onboard. They include the following roles: Deck Ratings - steer the ship, keep watch and assist the Navigation (Deck) Officer, operational and cargo duties. In port, you would secure the ship to the dock, carry out maintenance and contribute to the security of the vessel. Engine Room Rating- will perform various basic roles in the Engine Room department. Fitter - Semi-skilled and mechanically trained, responsibilities include ensuring the continuous running of machinery and equipment, organising routine maintenance procedures and any necessary repairs. Oiler or Wiper - Cleans the machinery plant, checks systems and assists with engineering tasks on the ship.
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also in position to converse with all the crew and provide informal counselling. As Samspon recognises, “at each rung of the organisational ladder there may be other loci of authority and power relations that may relate to age, experience and charisma” (ibid., p.87). In general, the hierarchy of a merchant naval vessel is a highly structured, institutionalised, and replicable set of power relations. Still embedded with its genealogy within military naval traditions (a strong emphasis on drills, discipline, and authority), the power geometries that exist between occupants of each rank also reflect nationality and relative wealth.
Table 2: Typical hierarchy of jobs on board
Senior officers Junior officers Petty Officers Ratings Captain Chief engineer Chief officer First/second engineer Second officer Third officer Cadet Second engineer Third engineer Fourth engineer Bosun Chief steward Electrian Fitter Welder Ablebody Seamen (AB) Ordinary Seamen (OS) Oiler Wiper Second cook Messman Direction of descending seniority
(Sampson 2014, p.78)
4.6.
History of Mission to Seafarers
The provision of welfare services to seafarers is dominated by Christian Missionary organisations which have a global reach, e.g. the Sailors’ Society (91 ports), The Mission to Seafarers (200 ports), and the Apostles of the Sea (311 ports) (Sailors’ Society 2019; MtS 2019; AoS 2019). Their networks mirror the old routes of colonial expansion as the missions were embedded in the institutional framework of empire. Kverndal (1986), charts the embryonic stages of the missions’ incubation within the Anglo-American hegemony, then their spread as part of the 'humanitarian awakening' in the eighteenth century (ibid., p.23). Only with the founding of the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in 1864 did the concept spread to other European states. The contemporary global network of missions contains a wide array of Christian
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Rotterdam, as part of this case study, included the organisations of Mission to Seafarers, Dutch Zeemanscentrale (NZC), Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), Sjømannskirken Norwegian Church Abroad, Danske Sømandsog Udlandskirker (Danish Church), Deutsche Seemaansmission, Finnish Seamen’s Mission, and the Seamen's Christian Friends Society. Each mission associated with a European State emphasises its objective to provide pastoral care for its affiliated citizens and receives funding from state subsidies and linked congregations at home. However, the shift towards crews from the Global South has eroded their historical constituencies. Through the umbrella partnership
organisation of the International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) and Merchant Navy Welfare Boards (MNWB), these organisations cooperate with trade unions and port authorities to improve the welfare of transnational seafarers. In particular the Sailors’ Society has attempted to reform practices through the use of digital platforms (wellness at sea and the ship visiting app) and development projects (floating libraries in the Philippines, health clinics in India); however, port chaplaincy remains tethered to traditional practices of ship visiting (Otto 2014).
4.7.
Maritime Labour Convention 2006
The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) represents a ‘bill of rights for seafarers’ consolidating 68 existing ILO maritime conventions with some new legislation. By linking three key international maritime conventions (SOLAS, STCW and MARPOL) it forms a global standard of minimum terms and conditions of seafarers’ employment, safety, security, and marine environmental protections (Papadakis et al. 2008). Shipping is an example of a highly globalised industry characterised by 'plant' mobility, a global labour market, offshoring and outsourcing, facilitated by open flag registers (Bloor & Sampson 2009; Sampson 2013). Such fluid governance regimes present a challenge for global governance to regulate and enforce compliance via ‘Flag State Control’, and 'Port State Control' (PSC). It should be acknowledged that the resourcing of port state authorities in nations outside the OECD leads to fissures in the global trading network where non-compliance remains a viable practice.
In reference to legislation on the welfare of seafarers, the MLC 2006 states in Regulation 4.4 that “every seafarer has the right to health protection, medical care, welfare measures and other forms of social protection”. Similarly, the importance of shore leave, port-based welfare services (PBWS), and facilities for seafarers have been requirements in Part Four of MLC, 2006 (MLC 2006). According to the
Convention, as a port State, each Member shall promote the development of welfare facilities in
designated ports and provide visiting seafarers with access to adequate welfare facilities and services to secure their health and wellbeing. The mechanism for delivering these strategies is through the cultivation of Port Welfare Committees, replicating a UK template for partnership work between port authorities, ship
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owners, shipping agents, and welfare organisations (typically in the form of seamens’ missions). All regulations on welfare remain advisory, but provides leverage to make claims for increased investment and access to support seafarers.
4.8.
Concluding remarks
The hyperspace of ports as a field-site is contextualised by complex histories that have long and short threads. It is a intersection of histories and identities related to post-colonialism, empire and nation-hood. In addition, it has become a focal point neoliberal discourse with unique jurisdictional frameworks that dislocate the political from the economic issues. The political economy of the maritime industry forms a broad context for researching the wellbeing of seafarers who facilitate cargomodalities; throughout the study I will try to draw on these threads to contextualise analytical claims being made.
5. Methodology
5.1.
Epistemological and Ontological Stance
This study follows a mixed methods design based on a constructivist ontology - the intention of
understanding "the world of human experience" (Cohen & Manion 1994, p.36) - suggesting that "reality is socially constructed" (Mertens 2005, p.12). This study sets out to recognise and contemplate on the subjective human experience, contingencies of truth claims, value-laden inquiry, and local knowledge and vernacular expressions (Denzin 2001). This research is designed to illuminate how the specificity of the transnational identity of seafarers and the power geometries problematise the perception of wellbeing within a broader neoliberal discourse (Creswell & Plano Clark 2011).
Underpinning this is a critical epistemology which adheres to the understanding that reality and
knowledge are socially constructed and influenced by power relations in society. As a researcher, I am concerned with the nature of causation, agency, structure, and associations that produce our ways of understanding concepts (Rutzou 2016). As the meaning of wellbeing is socially constructed and varies depending on the case-specific context, it is necessary to use qualitative techniques to ascertain the process with which concepts are interpreted and given meaning. This stance will allow the study to embed the cultural, social, and interpersonal context of the behaviours and norms enacted by the seafarers and the community who serve them.
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5.2.
Unit of analysis
This study conducted research across three units of analysis. Firstly, a sample of transnational seafarers were selected, accessed through ship visits and the seafarers' centre, who completed a questionnaire survey. Secondly, a sub-population of these seafarers participated in in-depth interviews dependent on their availability and consent. Thirdly, a sample of port community informants - actors involved in providing, regulating and defining welfare provision for seafarers in the maritime industry - were interviewed. They were interviewed based on their high exposure to conditions of the seafarers. Informants came from organisations listed below:
● Sailors’ Society ● Mission for Seafarers
● International Christian Maritime Association (Netherlands) ● Merchant Navy Welfare Board
● Maritime Coast Agency
● Ship owner (oil bunker vessels) ● Shipping agent
5.3.
Sampling Strategy
This study used different sampling strategies for the two populations in this study. Firstly, the population of transnational seafarers was sampled using a non-probability method of convenience sampling, based on the variation and unpredictability of seafarers availability to participate. A sample frame, in order to use randomised and controlled sampling methods, could not be constructed due to the lack of accessible data on populations of seafarers berthing in Southampton. The study did attempt to select participants that were representative of ranks and nationality in the transnational community. The second population of port community informants was sampled using snowball sampling method (O’Leary 2004, p.108). In this method, the participants referred the researcher to others who were able to participate in the study.
5.3.1. Data Collection Methods
Bryman (2012, p.1) defines mixed method research as “the application of two or more sources of data or research methods to the investigation of a research question”. The purpose of using the mixed methods approach was based on two justifications; firstly, triangulation and the possibility of establishing
