Coastal social-ecological systems face intensifying pressures from climate change, extractive industries, and competing claims to space and resources. These conflicts carry profound justice dimensions about who benefits from coastal resources and whose knowledge counts in decision-making. Beyond technical management challenges, we can view these as contested futures where different groups envision fundamentally different possibilities for places and communities. While sustainability science has increasingly turned to arts-based approaches, important gaps persist in understanding how artistic engagement actually operates in practice. Most studies analyze creative outputs while leaving the generative process itself under examined. Through reflexive analysis of arts-led co-creation in three contested coastal settings—embroidery workshops with displaced women in Bangladesh, stop-motion animation with fishing communities in Brazil, and documentary filmmaking with Indigenous cultural practitioners in Hawaii—we identify three interwoven orientations that characterized our work: relational co-creation, pluriversal attunement, and collective imagination. We discuss these as cultivable sensibilities that shaped how we navigated collaboration in contested contexts. Our analysis reveals how these orientations unfolded through specific practices, what they enabled, and where they met limits. By opening the co-creative process as a site of inquiry, we contribute practice-based evidence of how arts-led work actually unfolds in contested coastal contexts.
Galafassi D., Palact-Nelsen S.A., Johnson K., Kealoha Leslie C., Chowdhury M., Deau P.T., Pintér M., de Souza Ramos M., Kollberg S., Aranha do Nascimento Alves L., Selim S., Paytan A., Barboza R.S.L., Dahlet L., Heck N., Narayan S., Knopp L. and Glaser M. (2026) Arts-led co-creation in contested coastal futures. Sustainability Science. 10.1007/s11625-026-01856-2
@article{Galafassi2026,
Title = {Arts-led co-creation in contested coastal futures},
Author = {Galafassi, Diego and Palact-Nelsen, Shane Akoni and Johnson, Krista and Kealoha Leslie, Charles and Chowdhury, Mahenaz and Deau, Pascale Terra and Pintér, Margaréta and de Souza Ramos, Manoel and Kollberg, Sara and Aranha do Nascimento Alves, Leidiane and Selim, Samiya and Paytan, Adina and Barboza, Roberta Sá Leitão and Dahlet, Lol and Heck, Nadine and Narayan, Siddharth and Knopp, Lena and Glaser, Marion},
Journal = {Sustainability Science},
Year = {2026},
Doi = {10.1007/s11625-026-01856-2},
Abstract = {Coastal social-ecological systems face intensifying pressures from climate change, extractive industries, and competing claims to space and resources. These conflicts carry profound justice dimensions about who benefits from coastal resources and whose knowledge counts in decision-making. Beyond technical management challenges, we can view these as contested futures where different groups envision fundamentally different possibilities for places and communities. While sustainability science has increasingly turned to arts-based approaches, important gaps persist in understanding how artistic engagement actually operates in practice. Most studies analyze creative outputs while leaving the generative process itself under examined. Through reflexive analysis of arts-led co-creation in three contested coastal settings—embroidery workshops with displaced women in Bangladesh, stop-motion animation with fishing communities in Brazil, and documentary filmmaking with Indigenous cultural practitioners in Hawaii—we identify three interwoven orientations that characterized our work: relational co-creation, pluriversal attunement, and collective imagination. We discuss these as cultivable sensibilities that shaped how we navigated collaboration in contested contexts. Our analysis reveals how these orientations unfolded through specific practices, what they enabled, and where they met limits. By opening the co-creative process as a site of inquiry, we contribute practice-based evidence of how arts-led work actually unfolds in contested coastal contexts.},
}
TY - JOUR
AU - Galafassi, Diego
AU - Palact-Nelsen, Shane Akoni
AU - Johnson, Krista
AU - Kealoha Leslie, Charles
AU - Chowdhury, Mahenaz
AU - Deau, Pascale Terra
AU - Pintér, Margaréta
AU - de Souza Ramos, Manoel
AU - Kollberg, Sara
AU - Aranha do Nascimento Alves, Leidiane
AU - Selim, Samiya
AU - Paytan, Adina
AU - Barboza, Roberta Sá Leitão
AU - Dahlet, Lol
AU - Heck, Nadine
AU - Narayan, Siddharth
AU - Knopp, Lena
AU - Glaser, Marion
TI - Arts-led co-creation in contested coastal futures
T2 - Sustainability Science
PY - 2026
DO - 10.1007/s11625-026-01856-2
AB - Coastal social-ecological systems face intensifying pressures from climate change, extractive industries, and competing claims to space and resources. These conflicts carry profound justice dimensions about who benefits from coastal resources and whose knowledge counts in decision-making. Beyond technical management challenges, we can view these as contested futures where different groups envision fundamentally different possibilities for places and communities. While sustainability science has increasingly turned to arts-based approaches, important gaps persist in understanding how artistic engagement actually operates in practice. Most studies analyze creative outputs while leaving the generative process itself under examined. Through reflexive analysis of arts-led co-creation in three contested coastal settings—embroidery workshops with displaced women in Bangladesh, stop-motion animation with fishing communities in Brazil, and documentary filmmaking with Indigenous cultural practitioners in Hawaii—we identify three interwoven orientations that characterized our work: relational co-creation, pluriversal attunement, and collective imagination. We discuss these as cultivable sensibilities that shaped how we navigated collaboration in contested contexts. Our analysis reveals how these orientations unfolded through specific practices, what they enabled, and where they met limits. By opening the co-creative process as a site of inquiry, we contribute practice-based evidence of how arts-led work actually unfolds in contested coastal contexts.
ER -
