Abstract
In this chapter, we wrestle with the question that motivates this book: how to value small-scale fisheries? We do so in relation to an empirically rich case, the small-scale fishery of Gujarat, India. Our investigation of historical and social relational factors influencing the Gujarat fishery reveals the complexity of the notion of value. The fishery of Gujarat State is large, economically significant, internally diverse, and complex in organization and practice. Yet, even in comparison to other marginalized small-scale fisheries, Gujarat’s small and large scale fisheries are peripheral to the consciousness of most Gujaratis. We reflect on how the predominant value orientation of Gujarat has shaped its fisheries’ historical development and led to significant ecological and social contradictions in them. We argue that social wellbeing provides a productive analytical framework for understanding value in the Gujarat small-scale fishery in relation to history, social positionality, and scale. Our ethnographic evidence draws particularly on the researchers’ familiarity with two small-scale fishing harbours to explore how fishing articulates with caste, religion, class, gender, and history.
Julie Urquhart, Tim Acott and Natasha Stacey provided valuable comments on an earlier draft this chapter. We would like to thank Elizabeth Johnson for her editorial suggestions. We are grateful for funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the grant Too Big to Ignore: Global Partnership for small-scale Fisheries Research, the International Development Research Council of Canada, and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Manitoba.
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- 1.
The research on which this paper is based was initially framed by the coastal extent of Junagadh District. In 2013, Junagadh was split into two. The new Gir Somnath District is comprised of the bulk of the old coastal area of Junagadh, and small area around Mangrol, which was retained by the reduced Junagadh District.
- 2.
The total value of fish catch as estimated by the Gujarat Government is 695 thousand tonnes, which is more than the estimates we have arrived at using our primary data. For government data please see (http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/handbook%20on%20fisheries%20statistics%202014.pdf).
- 3.
As noted above, only 13% of respondents want their children to continue in fishing. Another 11% said that they were ambivalent about their children continuing to work in the sector.
- 4.
This figure is an extrapolation based on two censuses of the bandar population in 1998 and 2005. Bandar is the Gujarati word for harbour.
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Johnson, D.S., Biswal, R., Sathyapalan, J. (2018). History and Social Difference in Arguments for the Societal Values of Small-Scale Fisheries in Gujarat, India. 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_12
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