Journal MAST

Maritime Studies (MAST) is a leading peer-reviewed journal published by Springer devoted to the marine social sciences. Appearing four times per year, MAST is a platform for intellectual debate on maritime and coastal matters. Maritime Studies is global in scope with careful attention to balancing contributions from all parts of the world. MAST is supported by the Centre for Maritime Research (MARE), a social-science network interrogating the use and management of marine and coastal resources. MAST’s newest papers can be accessed here.

Aims and Scope 

Maritime Studies is a peer-reviewed journal highlighting social dimensions of coastal and marine change throughout the world. The journal is a venue for critical theoretical and empirical research relevant to a variety of social science disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, human geography, criminology, political science, and cognate disciplines. MAST gathers contributions that speak to a range of maritime issues.    It welcomes papers that challenge established paradigms, policies, epistemologies and research methods for making sense of maritime lifeworlds at different scale levels (from local to international). MAST also provides a platform to critically and constructively engage with policy debates by deepening our understanding of the complexities and contradictions of a range of governance problems relevant to public or private authorities. We invite original research papers, reviews and viewpoints that make a distinctive and original contribution to contemporary discussions around marine and coastal use, conflict and governance and their social and environmental justice implications.

Initially launched as a bi-annual publication on December 4, 2002, MAST joined the SpringerOpen catalogue in 2012. For an overview of MAST’s papers published prior to MAST’s affiliation with Springer (<2012), click here.

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Thematic Collections

Our editorial team invites proposals to guest edit Thematic Collections for the journal. Thematic collections bring together a series of papers to advance the state-of-the art of a chosen theme within the field of Maritime Studies. Such Collections are essentially digitalized Special Issues, releasing and publishing papers on a rolling basis. We appreciate proposals that express originality, experimentation and relevance for emerging debates. We are open to creative applications engaging with contested and complex maritime developments. Click here for viewing the range of current Thematic Collections.