Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
seafood products on the one hand, and the ongoing deterioration of marine resources
on the other, both of which are held to increase the chances of conflict occurring.
We will argue that conflict reduction is likely to coincide with the integration of a
governance framework and its upturning. We suggest that the result - participatory
governance of a particular variety - will have greater chances of being legitimate,
defusing strife and achieving environmental sustainability.
This chapter examines two regions of contemporary fishery conflict - one in South
Asia and the other in South Africa - in a historical and comparative perspective.
This study is the focus of a new research and action project funded by the Nether-
lands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
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We presume that the conditions that pertain to these two geographical regions
are at least to some degree generalisable to other parts of the world.
The first section below provides the main elements of our theoretical perspective,
highlighting inputs from interactive governance, legal pluralism and political ecology.
We leave collective action theory, which explains the genesis of fisher law before the
advent of industrialisation, market globalisation and state involvement, to Section 3.
Use is also made of the notions of endogenous versus exogenous, and symmetrical
versus asymmetrical conflict developed by Rapoport (1974).
Our historical perspective is stylised and ideal-typical. It builds upon Max Weber's
conception of the term 'ideal type' as a conceptual tool to facilitate comparisons
between societal phenomena. As Gerth and Mills point out, Weber “felt that social
scientists had the choice of using logically controlled and unambiguous conceptions,
which are thus more removed from historical reality, or of using less precise concepts,
which are more closely geared to the empirical world'' (1948: 59-60). Following from
his interest in global comparisons, he chose to consider 'pure cases', constructed as
ideal types. It is important to realise that, despite their exaggerated nature, ideal types
have a sound base in reality. Rather than replicating the details of each particular man-
ifestation of a societal phenomenon, ideal types “serve as guides in a filing system''
(Weber 1954: xxxviii) - they are distilled images constructed for analytical purposes.
In Section 4 the chapter moves on to investigate the impact of a century of fisheries
modernisation,
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both in the practice as well as the governance of fishing. Moderni-
sation is coupled with the entry of new fishing interests, as well as new contenders
for coastal and marine resources. These developments are paralleled by the advent
of new governing actors, such as state governments and international organisations,
and new bodies of hard and soft law (Birnie and Boyle 2002), which often have a
broader perspective than fishing alone. The end result is a bundle of novel fishing
problems and a complex condition of legal pluralism, where fishing is governed from
various non-integrated loci of authority at different scale levels. The shift of power
4
The project entitled 'Reincorporating the excluded: providing space for small-scale fish-
ers in the sustainable development of fisheries of South Africa and South Asia' (acronym
REINCORPFISH) commenced in 2010 and will continue until 2015.
5
For the purpose of this chapter we distinguish two major types: small-scale and industrial
fisheries. We associate small-scale fisheries with “the most labor intensive, technically simple,
and low-cost fishing methods'' (Johnson et al. 2005:79), while industrial fisheries generally have
converse characteristics. Johnson (2006) and Johnson et al. (2005) present a thoughtful analysis
of these categories and the intermediate fisheries types that are emerging.
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