Elaine Azzopardi
Research Associate in Ecosystem and Culture Interrelations.

Profile

Biography

My current PhD research explores the role of culture in securing ecosystems and their services with a focus on the marine environment. I am particularly interested in how this can be practically considered in marine governance.

I have recently worked on the EU Horizon 2020 project PERICLES (2018-2021), where I was a member of the project steering committee, led the work package on Stakeholder Engagement and co-led the fieldwork for the Scotland case study. The Pericles project looked at promoting the sustainable, participatory governance of coastal and marine cultural heritage and how this intersects with marine policy and planning.

I have also worked as a marine archaeologist and as a scientific diver with the UK’s National Facility of Scientific Diving and with Tritonia Scientific Ltd.

Career

2019- present: PhD researcher Department of Environment and Geography, University of York
2019-present: Senior technician Tritonia Scientific Ltd
2018-2021: Research Associate, University of York PERICLES project
2015-2021: Assistant Editor, Society for Underwater Technology
2008-2019: Senior Scientific Diver NERC’s National Facility for Scientific Diving
2002-2008: Freelance archaeologist Malta

Education

2004-2006: MA Research (distinction) University of Malta.
1999 - 2002: BA (Hons) Archaeology with Anthropology, University of Malta

Academic citizenship

Peer reviewer for the journals Ecosystem Services, People and Nature, and Social Science and Humanities Open.

Research

Overview

Area of Research:

• Marine governance
• Human-nature relations
• Cultural Ecosystem Services
• Values
• Participatory approaches

There is increasing emphasis on the need to include culture and multiple values in ecosystem-based management, including in marine governance and management initiatives, as ignoring this aspect can lead to unintended consequences and lack of legitimacy. However, culture is a complex, heavily debated concept and there is no clear route to how it should be approached and included in marine management. Culture is recognised in high-level frameworks like Ecosystem Services framework, but it is included in multiple ways and the approach to culture is vague in comparison to other factors, making it difficult to work with in practice. Looking at culture can be complimented by taking a values-based approach, identifying what people value and why can help recognise what motivates people and what influences their responses to management initiatives.

My PhD research is entitled “Understanding the multiple roles of culture in valuing ecosystems and their services.” The aim of the research is to advance understanding of the role(s) of culture in human-environment relationships with a view to informing the management of ecosystem services. My three main objectives are:

• To empirically investigate how the heritage of human-nature relations influences the present perspectives of civil society and the implications for ecosystem-based management that seeks to integrate multiple values.
• To empirically investigate the relationship between culture and different ecosystem services.
• To empirically investigate the role of culture as a driver of change in comparison to other drivers

NatureScot are partners in the project and the practical application of my results to a real-world marine management context will be explored during a placement with them. The output from the placement will be recommendations on what aspects of culture and what underlying values are important to include in the selection, designation and management of Marine Protected Areas and suggestions as to how this could be done. 

Publications

Selected publications

Ainscough, J., Kenter, J. O., Azzopardi, E., & Wilson, A. M. W. (2024). Participant perceptions of different forms of deliberative monetary valuation: Comparing democratic monetary valuation and deliberative democratic monetary valuation in the context of regional marine planning. Environmental Values, 33(2), 189-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/09632719241231510 

Azzopardi, E., Kenter, J.O., Young, J., Leakey, C., O’Connor, S., Martino, S., Flannery, W., Sousa, LP., Mylona, D., Frangoudes, K., Beguier, I., Pafi, M., Rey da Silva, A., Ainscough, J., Koutrakis, M., Ferreira da Silva, M., Cristina Pita. (2022) What are heritage values? Integrating natural and cultural heritage into environmental valuation. People and Nature https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10386

Flannery, W., Ounanian, K., Toonen, H., Tatenhove, J. V., Murtagh, B., Ferguson, L., Delaney, A., Kenter, J., Azzopardi, E., Pita, C., Mylona, D., Witteveen, L., Hansen, C. J., Howells, M., Macias, J. V., Lamers, M., Sousa, L., Silva, A. M. F. D., Taylor, S., Roio, M., Karro, K., Saimre, T. (2022). Steering resilience in coastal and marine cultural heritage. Maritime Studies. 21, 4, p. 437–446 10 p.

Hansen, C. J., Azzopardi, E., Béguier, I., Ferguson, L., Flannery, W. & Frangoudes, K. (2022). Building planning spaces for the integration of coastal and maritime cultural heritage in local and regional spatial development. Maritime Studies 21, 425–435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-022-00264-3

Kenter, J. O. et al. (2019). Loving the mess: navigating diversity and conflict in social values for sustainability. Sustainability Science 14(5), pp. 1439–1461. doi: 10.1007/s11625-019-00726-4.

Martino, S., Azzopardi, E., Fox, C., Chiaroni, E., Payne,E., Kenter, J. (2023). The importance of local fisheries as a cultural attribute: insight from a discrete choice experiment of seafood consumers. Maritime Studies 22, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-023-00308-2

Ounanian, K., van Tatenhove, J., Hansen, C. J., Delaney, A. E., Bohnstedt, H., Azzopardi, E., Flannery, W., Toonen, H., Kenter, J. O., Ferguson, L., Kraan, M., Macias, J. V., Lamers, M., Pita, C., Ferreira da Silva, A. M., Albuquerque, H., Alves, F. L., Mylona, D. & Frangoudes, K. (2021). Conceptualizing coastal and maritime cultural heritage through communities of meaning and participation. Ocean and Coastal Management, 212, 105806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105806