Unruly waters: local environmental knowledge and the erosion of Holocene stability

Coastal regions around the world are experiencing accelerated and uneven levels of change in the Anthropocene. These ongoing transformations are not only experienced through sea-level projections, but are lived and narrated in specific places. This article explores what it means to live alongside unruly waters through an ethnographic study of Lemvig, a small rural community on the west coast of Denmark. Based on six months of immersive fieldwork between 2018 and 2020, the article examines how residents here experience environmental changes, such as storms and floods, and how these encounters shape coastal identities and local understandings of climate change. The article traces three intertwined dimensions of adaptation to environmental change: (1) local environmental knowledge and moral framings of the sea as a powerful, recurring presence; (2) the material politics of coastal protections, from stone groins and sand nourishment to new climate mitigation strategies; and (3) emerging tensions between modern, post-Enlightenment imaginaries of Holocene stability and the unsettling dynamics of the Anthropocene. Drawing on these situated experiences, the paper argues that resilience along dynamic coasts is not simply a technical matter of engineering defenses, but an ongoing cultural and ethical practice. More specifically, the coastal histories in Lemvig highlight the importance of humility and relational thinking when it comes to coastal adaptation, offering insights for reimagining how communities might live with increasingly unpredictable seas.