Maritime professions as a field of social research

What is it about?

Maritime professions encompass more than 40 million workers worldwide, ranging from seafarers, fishers, and dockworkers to employees in shipbuilding, logistics, and maritime tourism. This introduction situates maritime occupations as a crucial but underexplored field of social research. It highlights the central role of the sea and maritime labour in shaping global historical processes such as industrialisation, colonialism, and globalisation, and in structuring enduring social inequalities related to class, race, and gender. The chapter introduces Ludwik Janiszewski’s concept of “marinization,” which captures the increasing entanglement of terrestrial and maritime realms, and demonstrates how maritime activities have pioneered developments later generalised across societies, from joint-stock companies to transnational labour markets. Maritime professions are shown to influence not only economic and political structures but also ecosystems and cultural meaning-making, serving as sources of myths, metaphors, and identities in many societies. At the same time, their practical knowledge and tacit skills continue to be crucial for engaging with the marine environment. Despite this significance, maritime occupations remain relatively marginal in the social sciences. The introduction therefore positions maritime sociology as an emerging subdiscipline with wide-ranging potential.

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Why is it important?

This research is important because it demonstrates that maritime professions—despite their central role in sustaining global trade, food security, and cultural life—remain largely invisible in mainstream social science. By situating seafarers, fishers, dockworkers, and other maritime professionals within long histories of colonialism, industrialisation, and globalisation, it shows how the sea has been a decisive arena for the making of class relations, racial hierarchies, gender roles, and ecological change. Highlighting Ludwik Janiszewski’s concept of “marinization,” the research reminds us that maritime work has never been peripheral but has consistently anticipated broader economic and social transformations, from joint-stock companies to today’s globalised labour markets. Recognising maritime professions as a field of study is therefore essential for understanding how global inequalities are produced and reproduced, how local cultures and identities are shaped, and how human interaction with the sea transforms both society and ecosystems. By drawing together diverse international case studies, this research builds the foundation for maritime sociology as an emerging discipline and argues that without including the maritime world, our understanding of society remains incomplete.