Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisage a desirable society
where equity is a normative goal that is given attention, and ways to
improve inclusivity and diversity of equity beyond concept, process and
outcome are being actively explored. Here, we examine how equity is
considered in a suite of papers that explored possible sustainable
futures for the oceans by 2030, and mapped out pathways to achieve
these, collectively aiming to move as far towards achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals as technically feasible. Our analysis
revealed that a large range of equity issues were recognised and
considered, in outcome-based (i.e. distributive), process-based (i.e.
procedural) and concept (i.e. contextual) dimensions. However, often,
the equity problem was not explicitly stated, but rather implied through
the action pathway identified to move towards a more sustainable 2030,
highlighting that reducing inequity is interlinked with improving
sustainability. Based on these findings, we reflect on the way equity is
conceptualised and considered within this work as well as futures
science for the oceans more broadly. These reflections are distilled
into lessons learnt, a key one of which is that science and knowledge
production are immediate areas where we can work to improve equity in
terms of building capacity to understand and include equity issues,
develop mechanisms to be more inclusive and diverse and continually, and
in particular, critically reflect on our own practices to fundamentally
challenge how we work and think in the space of marine science research.