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The Values of Small-Scale Fisheries

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Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries

Part of the book series: MARE Publication Series ((MARE,volume 17))

Abstract

This chapter, and the book that it introduces, are part of a larger project that aims to contribute to reversing the relative neglect of small-scale fisheries in fisheries policy globally. The project seeks, in other words, to build an argument for the societal contributions that small-scale fisheries make. In this chapter I position that effort in relation to a fuller understanding of value, one that goes beyond just value as contribution but recognizes the diversity and relationality of values in small-scale fisheries. To provide a framework for our effort, I turn to the social wellbeing approach which sees wellbeing not only as living well according to a reference set of values but also as the material, relational, and subjective capabilities that facilitate or hinder the pursuit of that which is valued. The social wellbeing framework provides the logic and structure for the development of a relational approach to values in small-scale fisheries that integrates quantitative and qualitative elements. The chapter concludes with an overview of the ways in which the remaining contributions to the book creatively engage with, and sometimes dispute, the framework presented here.

My co-authors on this volume, Tim Acott, Natasha Stacey, and Julie Urquhart, provided very useful comments and edits on earlier drafts of this chapter that considerably strengthened it. Ratana Chuenpagdee also had valuable inputs at various points in the writing process.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Toobigtoignore.net

  2. 2.

    Sider and van Ginkel remind us, however, that domestic commodity production should not be construed as ever resilient in the face of economic and regulatory threats, nor should it be glorified as an easy compromise – it can just as soon be experienced as a position of vulnerability and exploitation (Ginkel 2009; Sider 2003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    Derek S. Johnson

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  1. Derek S. Johnson
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Correspondence to Derek S. Johnson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Derek S. Johnson

  2. Department of History, Politics and Social Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

    Tim G. Acott

  3. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

    Natasha Stacey

  4. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    Julie Urquhart

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Johnson, D.S. (2018). The Values of Small-Scale Fisheries. In: Johnson, D., Acott, T., Stacey, N., Urquhart, J. (eds) Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries. MARE Publication Series, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60750-4_1

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