The Social Construction of the Ocean (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, Series Number 78)

The worlds' oceans have been extremely important in the development and interaction of societies throughout history. This unique book uses the tools of political geography and international relations to examine the ways in which nations and peoples have viewed and used the oceans. Most social scientists have looked on the seas as a resource, but Steinberg sees them as a space defined by society, arguing that political and economic forces have shaped the governance and representation of the sea as much as they have the land. Steinberg presents a history of the uses, regulations and representation of the world-ocean, from approximately 1450 through the present. This history is told through a 'territorial political economy' lens, borrowing from world-systems theory, economic-geographic studies of the spatiality of capitalism, political-geographic work on the history of territoriality, and post-structural work on social conflict in the production of space. Just as the modern era has been characterized by a conflicting set of dynamic and contested spatiality on land, so has it been characterized by a conflicting set of spatial functions at sea. Evidence is marshaled from legal texts, literary and artistic creations, cartographic representations, advertisements, commercial and military history, and policy debates. The book concludes by considering how lessons learned from the history of the ocean may be applied to emerging spaces, such as cyberspace, where there is a similarly problematic 'fit' between social processes and the institutions of state governance This 2001 book uses legal texts, literary and artistic creations, maps and policy debates, to trace the changing uses, regulations, and representations of the world-ocean from 1450 to the present. Steinberg uses theories of social forces and state policy, treating the sea as global space of political, economic, and cultural history.

Discussing the changing uses, regulations and representation of the sea from 1450 to now.

It is difficult to overstate the role of the ocean in the rise of the modern world-system.