Wet Ontologies, Fluid Spaces: Giving Depth to Volume through Oceanic Thinking

TLDR

Human geography has moved from static, bordered frameworks to fluid, networked ontologies, yet these still lack a material, vertical dimension of volume and a chaotic temporality that captures the dynamic nature of place. This paper argues that a wet ontology grounded in oceanic spatiality can fill these gaps by reintroducing material volume and continual reformation to reshape terrestrial‑limited debates. The authors propose using the ocean—an inherently voluminous, material, and constantly reforming space—as the foundation for a wet ontology that redirects and reshapes existing debates.

Abstract

This paper expands on recent attempts to destabilise the static, bordered, and linear framings that typify human geographical studies of place, territory, and time. In a world conceptualised as open, immanent, and ever-becoming, scholars have turned away from notions of fixity towards fluidity and flow, and, in so doing, have developed networked, ‘flat’ ontologies. Recent attempts have gone further, challenging the horizontalism inherent in such approaches by opening up a vertical world of volume. In this paper we contend that such approaches are still somewhat lacking. The vertical element of volume is all too often abstract and dematerialised; the emphasis on materiality that is typically used to rectify this excess of abstraction tends to reproduce a sense of matter as fixed and grounded; and the temporality that is employed to reintroduce ‘motion’ to matter has the unintended effect of signalling a periodised sense of time that minimises the chaotic underpinnings and experiences of place. We argue that the ocean is an ideal spatial foundation for addressing these challenges since it is indisputably voluminous, stubbornly material, and unmistakably undergoing continual reformation, and that a ‘wet ontology’ can reinvigorate, redirect, and reshape debates that are all too often restricted by terrestrial limits.