ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between communities and their coastal environments. Coastal policy communicates quite specific relations between humanity and the coast, between human cultures and environments, or more specifically between culture and nature. That relationship relies on a very specific ontology and epistemology that has enabled science and technology to advance, prosper and indeed deliver so many benefits to humanity within a system of advanced industrial capitalism. Coastal environmental disputes between community groups and government authorities are happening all over Australia and beyond. Increasing public concern about environmental issues, the role of governments in administering local environments and with the complexity of 'community' have increased local confrontations between competing interests and ideas. Critical coastal policy is better able to navigate the relations between communities and their coasts because it understands the historical, political, social and cultural contingencies of their knowledge's, and is therefore humbled in the presence of others.
