Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Praxis of Fisheries as Culture: Long-Term Viability of Fishing Communities in Rural Alaska

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ARC - 1023699 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Praxis of Fisheries as Culture: Long-Term Viability of Fishing Communities in Rural AlaskaDoctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Praxis of Fisheri...Schweitzer, Peter P. Preferred Abstract: The proposed project will support the PhD dissertation research of University of Alaska Fairbanks anthropology student Davin Holen. The researcher proposes to develop indices that measure the long-term viability of rural fishing communities in Alaska by investigating how fisheries create and maintain culture and community. To understand long-term viability of rural fishing communities this project will focus on socio-cultural factors such as culture change, kinship based social networks, and local-level politics that shape contemporary commercial and subsistence fisheries in Alaska. It will also take into account the local mixed economy that enables families to ensure adequate food security. In the North fisheries have become a reified symbol of the reliance on subsistence for many rural communities in sub-Arctic Alaska situated along river and coastal marine environments. This project will also identify whether a robust subsistence economy, particularly one focused on fisheries, is an indicator of cultural success in these communities. Finally this project will identify whether a project such as this could create indices to measure the long-term viability of rural fishing communities in Alaska. The project uses three communities as test cases; Kokhanok located in the Bristol Bay watershed, Chenega Bay located in Prince William Sound, and Tyonek located in Cook Inlet. This project could be a model for other projects to investigate long-term viability of fishing communities in Alaska, or potentially across the North. Understanding the viability of fishing communities in the United States is a critical component in sustaining community participation in fisheries and maintaining the uniqueness of fishing communities.