Knowledge construction and use for environmental governance: An interpretive study of data practices in coral reef marine protected areas

This PhD thesis examines social processes around data collection, sharing, interpretation and use by actors associated with coral reef marine protected areas (MPAs). The study applies an interpretive approach to understand:

• how actors assign meanings to data and data attributes in the context of information system development for MPA governance;

• how scientists, the media and MPA stakeholders use data and metaphors to shape discourses around invasive lionfish in Caribbean MPAs;

• what motivates, enables and constrains actors to engage in data collection, sharing and (non) use for lionfish management;

• what types of accountability relations arise in interactive knowledge systems in the field of MPA water quality, and the mechanisms through which actors manage multiple accountability claims.