Life of a ship

by Claudia Ricci, Alumni Certificate Student

My final project focuses on the lifecycle of a ship under three different perspectives: an historical perspective, a geographical perspective, and a political ecology perspective. The main goal of this project is to provide information about the whole lifecycle of a ship and about the stakeholders involved in this lifecycle as well as to offer the audience an extensive collection of literature and sources on this topic.

The choice of this subject is motivated by at least two factors. First, over the last few years, the topic of lifecycle management has been increasingly gaining importance not only on the corporate and economic efficiency level but also under a political ecology perspective that addresses how industrial products travel around the world from the production to the disposal or dismantling phase. Secondly, ships have become a symbol of globalization (in particular, cargo ships) as well as of the arguable effort of manhood to extend its control and exploitation over the seas (for example, by building “small” floating cities like cruise ships). Such phenomena have shaped the global industrial development of the last decades in addition to triggering a series of social and environmental consequences and changes that are difficult to reverse.

The project takes the form of a Prezi presentation that guides the readers through the life cycle of a ship, starting from the ship's ownership characteristics through its building process, its service life and finally its demolition (ship breaking).

This topic is addressed under three different perspectives:

1. A geographical perspective

In which regions of the world ships are built, registered, used and dismantled and how these regions are important in the life cycle of a ship.

2. An historical perspective

Which processes characterized the life cycle of a ship in the past and how these processes have changed (or remained the same) over time (e.g., where and how ships were dismantled in the past vs. where and how they are dismantled now).

3. A political ecology perspective

Which are the political ecology processes and the main stakeholders associated with the life cycle of a ship (e.g. why ships are sent to developing countries to be dismantled and how the demolition takes place).