Fisheries Privatization, Sociocultural Transitions, and Well-Being in Kodiak, Alaska

学者和渔民都认为，捕鱼权私有化是改变渔业生计和社区的根本动力。扩大在阿拉斯加湾的农村渔业社区进行的人种学研究，这个项目探讨了社会和文化的变化与渔业权利的私有化在科迪亚克，阿拉斯加的多样化渔业社区。本研究有三个主要目标：1）了解参与渔业系统的不同人群如何经历渔业权私有化，2）探索渔业私有化与其他生态，经济和技术变革驱动因素相比的相对重要性和影响程度，3）评估渔业私有化所带来的社会文化变迁与个人和社区福祉之间的关系。本民族志研究采用访谈、调查、参与观察和档案研究的混合方法，将提供丰富的定性和系统的定量数据，以评估监管和相关变化如何影响渔业系统和渔业社区的社会和文化层面。该研究框架加入了政治生态学，社会生态系统和渔业社区人类学的学术研究，为资源封闭和不断变化的自然-社会关系之间的关系提供了关键的分析见解。研究结果将广泛适用于了解阿拉斯加湾，白令海和整个北极圈渔业社区的转变。这项研究也为资源政策的制定提供了信息。随着渔业经济学家、管理人员、环保团体和大众媒体越来越多地倡导海洋资源的广泛私有化，这些转变的社会和文化影响需要加以探讨和记录。这项研究的结果将有实际应用，了解如何开发新的适应性模式的机构和生态管理，将提供渔业依赖社区的复原力。转向基于生态系统的海洋治理要求更加重视在制定政策时如何处理个人和社区的健康和福祉以及社会正义的普遍关切。这项研究将提供关于如何在北极、亚北极及其他地区的资源管理政策中更好地考虑生计和价值观多样性的见解。

Scholars and fishermen alike view the privatization of fishing rights as a fundamental driver of change in fishing livelihoods and communities. Expanding upon ethnographic research conducted in rural fishing communities in the Gulf of Alaska, this project explores the social and cultural shifts linked to the privatization of fishing rights in the diverse fishing community of Kodiak, Alaska. This study has three primary objectives: 1) to understand how the privatization of fishing rights has been experienced across diverse human groups that participate in fishery systems, 2) to explore the relative importance and magnitude of the impacts of fisheries privatization compared with other ecological, economic, and technological drivers of change, and 3) to assess the relationship between the social and cultural shifts linked to fishery privatization and individual and community well-being.This ethnographic study, employing mixed methods of interviews, surveys, participant observation and archival research, will provide rich qualitative and systematic quantitative data to assess how regulatory and related changes affect the social and cultural dimensions of fishery systems and fishing communities. The research framework joins scholarship in political ecology, social-ecological systems, and the anthropology of fishing communities to provide key analytical insights into the relationship between the enclosure of resources and changing nature-society relationships. The research findings will have broad applicability to understanding transitions in fishing communities in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and throughout the Circumpolar North. This study also informs resource policy development. As fishery economists, managers, environmental groups, and popular media sources increasingly advocate for the widespread privatization of marine resources, the social and cultural implications of these transitions need to be explored and documented. The results of this study will have practical application in understanding how to develop new adaptive models of institutional and ecological management that will provide for the resilience of fishing-dependent communities. Shifts to ecosystem-based marine governance call for increased attention to the ways in which individual and community health and well-being and general concerns of social justice are addressed in policy development. The research will provide insights on how the diversity of livelihoods and values can be better accounted for in resource management policy in the arctic, sub-arctic and beyond.