Systems of reciprocity in human–ocean relationships: Across time, place, language and culture

Abstract In the face of large‐scale marine environmental challenges, solutions that meaningfully capture the complexity of socio‐cultural and economic factors contributing to such issues—and their solutions—are urgently needed. This scoping review explores examples of reciprocity in human–ocean relationships to inform the conceptual underpinning and meaning of reciprocity, including key concepts, definitions, characteristics and knowledge gaps. In doing so, we explore reciprocity as a subversive environmental discourse with the potential to reframe human–ocean relationships towards the meaningful integration of human dimensions in marine management, conservation and governance. Through a scoping review of the peer‐reviewed academic literature, we identify and map examples of reciprocity in marine socio‐ecological systems to explore the plurality of ‘cultures of nature’ from which the concept of reciprocity has arisen. A diversity of terminology across different languages, cultures, and localities captures many conceptualisations alongside common themes of reciprocal human‐ocean relationships. Three overarching themes emerge from the papers in this review: (1) the quantifiable benefits of reciprocity for oceans and nature, (2) an acknowledgement of the interconnected socio‐cultural institutions that confer reciprocity and (3) reciprocity as an alternative practice to the dichotomy of extraction versus protection. While each theme builds on the previous, the latter two, taken together, emphasize the strong connection between reciprocity in social systems and reciprocal human‐ocean relationships, highlighting the inextricable link between the social and the ecological. By positioning reciprocity as an alternative environmental discourse, this study challenges dominant paradigms that often separate humans from nature and view human impact as inherently harmful. Instead, it highlights humans as integral and potentially constructive agents within marine ecosystems. Reciprocity, therefore, offers a valuable frame for imagining new narratives towards sustainable marine futures. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.