Developing equity-oriented data practices for small-scale fisheries

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在康奈尔大学Jenny Goldstein博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金奖支持一名早期职业科学家，研究将新数据和技术整合到渔业科学和管理中的社会效益和障碍。过度捕捞威胁到全球渔业的可持续性，但据说减少捕捞影响的政策受到关键数据短缺的限制。数码技术，如照相机和地理空间跟踪设备，已经成为收集捕鱼活动数据的低成本工具。然而，尽管数据收集技术广泛扩散，但很少有研究审查渔业数据开发和部署的相关做法。本研究考察了非政府组织（ngo）、渔民和其他环境治理参与者之间的数据共享实践，以了解数字渔业数据是如何收集、共享和应用于环境决策的。以往的研究主要集中在行星尺度的环境数据网络上，而本研究强调了收集和应用数据的日常实践，以及全球和地方之间复杂的相互依赖关系。该项目通过将蓝色经济中数据公正、性别和环境公平之间的联系理论化，以及通过探索环境数据的性别经验，特别是在农村和资源型生计的背景下，在关键方面推进了知识的发展。研究结果有助于为政策和机构实践提供信息，增强妇女权能，同时利用技术提高渔业的可持续性。本研究采用了一个新的数字渔业数据收集计划的多站点案例研究。这项研究提出了三个问题：1)新的数据流和数据收集技术如何促进或限制渔业的参与，特别是妇女的参与？2)数据基础设施的设计和开发与渔业管理战略以何种方式相互通知？3)数据实践如何支持蓝色经济中的公平？研究目标是：i)探索渔民和渔民家庭的妇女如何看待数字渔业数据及其作用、重要性和价值，特别是对其渔业生计的影响；Ii)评估渔业科学家和管理者如何使用数字技术收集的新数据流。研究员将通过与渔民、渔业科学家和管理人员以及技术行业的利益相关者进行半结构化访谈和参与观察来收集数据。这项研究将导致开发两个可操作的工具：1)与渔民共同制定数据共享协议，非政府组织可以利用该协议增加数据的可获取性；2)面向公平的数据实践建议，将向决策者、非政府组织和渔业科学家传播并向公众提供。这项研究的结果将为有关渔业数据治理的关键海洋政策辩论提供信息，并为渔业数据的性别获取如何影响渔业参与提供经验证据。通过本研究产生的新的渔业数据公平框架有可能改变蓝色经济研究，将重点从采掘技术转移到数据技术，作为促进更公平参与渔业和海洋治理的途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Jenny Goldstein at Cornell University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the social benefits and barriers to integrating new data and technologies in fisheries science and management. Overfishing threatens global fisheries sustainability, yet policies to reduce the impact of fishing are said to be limited by critical data shortages. Digital technologies, such as cameras and geospatial tracking devices, have emerged as low-cost tools for collecting data on fishing activity. However, despite the widespread proliferation of data collection technologies, little research has examined the relational practices through which fisheries data are developed and deployed. This research examines data sharing practices between non-governmental organizations (NGOs), fishers, and other environmental governance actors to understand how digital fisheries data is collected, shared and applied in environmental decision-making. Whereas previous research has focused on planetary-scale environmental data networks, this study foregrounds the quotidian embodied practices of collecting and applying data and the complex interdependencies between the global and the local. This project advances knowledge in key ways by theorizing the linkages between data justice, gender and environmental equity in the Blue Economy, and by exploring gendered experiences with environmental data, particularly in the context of rural and resource-based livelihoods. The results can help inform policies and institutional practices that empower women while also improving fisheries sustainability with technology. This study employs a multi-sited case study of a new digital fisheries data collection program. This research asks three questions: 1) How do new data streams and data collection technologies enable or constrain fisheries participation, and in particular the participation of women? 2) In what ways do the design and development of data infrastructure and fisheries management strategies mutually inform one another? 3) How can data practices support equity in the Blue Economy? The research objectives are to: i) explore how fishers and women from fishing households perceive digital fisheries data, its role, importance and value, particularly in relation to their fishing livelihoods and; ii) evaluate how fisheries scientists and managers use new data streams collected with digital technologies. The Fellow will collect data through semi-structured interviews with fishers, fisheries scientists and managers, and stakeholders from the technology industry and through participant observation. The research will result in the development of two actionable tools: 1) a data-sharing protocol co-produced with fishers that NGOs can use to increase data accessibility and 2) recommendations for equity-oriented data practices which will be disseminated to policy-makers, NGOs and fisheries scientists and made publicly available. The results of this study will inform key ocean policy debates about fisheries data governance and provide empirical evidence for how gendered access to fisheries data impacts fishing participation. The novel fisheries data equity framework produced through this study has the potential to transform research on the Blue Economy by shifting focus from extractive technologies to data technologies as avenues for advancing more equitable participation in fisheries and oceans governance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.