This book is the first volume of the new MARE Publication Series. It brings together several papers showing different disciplinary perspectives on the complex and dynamic interface between people and the sea. People and the Sea was the title of the first International Conference organised by the newly established Netherlands Centre for Maritime Research. MARE was formally established in 2000 upon the initiative of social scientists at the University of Amsterdam, who were mostly involved in fisheries research in Europe and in Asia. During the first three years of its existence MARE has rapidly expanded both in scope and in size in close collaboration with the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Sociology and the Department of Human Geography of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), SISWO/Netherlands Institute of the Social Sciences, and the Chairgroup of Rural Development Sociology of Wageningen University (WUR). It now includes Ph.D. research and advisory research on marine anthropology and integrated coastal development topics ranging from sustainable fisheries and co-management issues to the transnationalisation of artisanal fisheries and the complex realities of marine park management in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The three-day conference People and the Sea was held in Amsterdam from August 30 to September 1, 2001. It was opened by the Netherlands State Secretary of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, and hosted a total number of 165 scientists who presented their work in many parallel sessions. Although MARE primarily consists of social scientists, research and training activities are often undertaken in a transdisciplinary context. The importance of transdisciplinary research was underlined by the organisation of two panels on the topic during this first international conference of 2001.

Why have the coastal zone and marine resources been recently receiving attention? Three parallel developments seem to be taking place at different scales and time perspectives. Changes in the biosphere and sea level rise, the increased economic valuation of marine resources, and demographic transformations in the coastal zone are processes that to a large extent run parallel to each other. But in the present-day political-economic discourse they often reinforce each other, and potential sea level rise becomes a perceived risk that needs to be controlled.