Place-based fishing livelihoods and the global ocean: the Irish pelagic fleet at home and abroad
Donkersloot and Menzies Maritime Studies
Place-based fishing livelihoods and the global ocean: the Irish pelagic fleet at home and abroad
Rachel Donkersloot 1
Charles Menzies 0
0 Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia , 6303 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 , Canada
1 Alaska Marine Conservation Council , PO Box 101145, Anchorage, Alaska 99510 , USA
This paper examines the development of the Irish pelagic fleet and how it has impacted place-based fishing livelihoods in southwest County Donegal, both positively and negatively. As part of this effort, we consider how shifting local and global sociopolitical realities have shaped linkages between resource access and people-place connections in southwest Donegal. We pay particular attention to how Irish fishing opportunities, both at home and abroad, are created and constrained under EU governance and how this drives the displacement of fishing livelihoods from coastal southwest Donegal. We identify power as a key and dynamic mechanism underlying fishery systems in the Irish context. Drawing on interview and ethnographic data we discuss how power is perceived and exercised among local fishery stakeholders, and how this in turn works to shape contemporary adaptive strategies in rural fishery dependent Ireland.
Political ecology; Social-environmental systems; EU Common Fisheries Policy; Power; Irish fishing communities
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fishing livelihoods, both positively and negatively. As part of this effort we explore the
ways in which key processes impacting local fishing livelihoods are embedded in
relations of power, especially in the context of fisheries policy, and how this works to
inform local understandings of what is possible in place.
Key objectives: considering place and power in resource governance
This paper focuses on the complex and changing linkages between fishing communities,
fishermen and fishery resources in southwest Donegal. We describe how historical
relations and shifting local and global sociopolitical realities have shaped linkages between
resource access and people-place connections in the region. We pay particular attention to
how Irish fishing opportunities, both at home and abroad, have been created and
constrained under EU governance and how this changing resource base drives the
displacement of fishing livelihoods from coastal southwest Donegal.
Our approach is grounded in a political ecology perspective which combines “the
concerns of ecology and a broadly defined political economy. Together this
encompasses the constantly shifting dialectic between society and resources, and also within
classes and groups within society itself”
(Blaikie and Brookfield 1987:17)
. We explicitly
consider power here as a key and dynamic mechanism underpinning the development,
delocalization and decline of fishing opportunities in northwest Ireland
(Jentoft 2007;
see also Bryant 1998; Schroeder et al. 2006; Blaikie 2001)
.
Jentoft (2007:433) describes power as an understated and understudied aspect of
fisheries research contending that “if we want to understand how natural and social
systems change, we should focus on how power works in fisheries and coastal settings.”
Drawing on interview and ethnographic data, we highlight the ways in which power,
operating across multiple scales and through myriad social, political, economic and
environmental processes, is perceived and exercised among a diverse suite of fishery
stakeholders in Killybegs. Specifically, we explore how power 1) underpins linkages in
the condition and change of social/environmental systems
(Robbins 2004)
, and 2) impacts
contemporary adaptive strategies and perceived “potential for change” in southwest
Donegal
(Boulding 1990 cited in Jentoft 2007)
. An underlying objective of this paper
is to broaden its resonance beyond the Irish context and advance efforts to more
centrally incorporate social goals and place-based community interests and opportunities
in fisheries management models
(see for example Macinko 2007; St. Martin et al. 2007;
Stoll and Holliday 2014)
.
Methods and materials
This paper is based on one year of ethnographic research carried out in southwest
Donegal in 2007–2008, followed by a return visit in 2010. Fieldwork included more than 60
semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Participants included active and retired fishermen
(e.g. vessel owners, skippers and crew), industry representatives, fish factory workers,
community and regional leaders, fishery managers, and local youth from both fishing and
non-fishing backgrounds. Interview questions focused on individual and family fishing
backgrounds, work experience, sense of place and community, views on fisheries
management and EU fisheries governance, and attitudes toward fishing as an occupation and way
of life. Data for this paper comes primarily from interviews with 15 project participants.
Interview materials are supplemented with a more recent review of secondary sources
and lit (...truncated)