The gift of community

Abstract

This book is a followup, or a continuation rather, of the one I published in 2019 as part of the Too Big To Ignore (TBTI) Global Book Series, titled ‘Life Above Water: Essays on Human Experiences of Small-Scale Fisheries’. The design and purpose of the current book are the same. The introduction in the 2019 book could also work here, even if this book has a sharper focus on communities. Both consist of small chapters written independently as reflective pieces. A few of them were published before in SAMUDRA Report. Some chapters draw on things I have published in Norwegian. Several chapters were originally talk manuscripts prepared for invited lectures. One chapter is based on my keynote address at the 2019 Mare Conference, ‘People and the Sea’. Another is built on my response to commentators. They both appeared in Maritime Studies (MAST) Journal but are slightly revised for this book. Most chapters have not been published before, although some of the ideas have appeared in my other publications, like academic journals, books, and edited volumes. <p>

<p>I hope the two books will be read as one,but that is not necessary. Chapters are organized in a sequence but do not have to be read in the order they appear in the table of content. Chapters are grouped together according to topics, but they could have been placed under a different topic than where I have put them. In some instances,there may be some overlap. Like in the 2019 book, the Voluntary Guidelines fo Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries within the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) ,which FAO member states endorsed in 2014, play a vital role in this book. They can both be read as a commentary on the SSF Guidelines and there maining challenges with respect to their implementation as well. The books are also a contribution to their 10^th anniversary in 2024. <p>

<p>The thirty-five chapters are written in essay form. They should be easy to read, also for people with little prior knowledge of small-scale fisheries and academic prose. It is important to know that we are talking about millions and millions of people around the world who make a living and a life in small scale fisheries. More than 90 percent of people employed in the fisheries industry are in the small-scale sector. They have a significant role to play for food security, but they often live in poverty, sometimes even in extreme poverty. All countries with a coast, estuaries or inland waters have small-scale fisheries people, and one will find them in local rural or urban communities. A reader should consult the many publications of FAO and TBTI on small-scale fisheries globally. There is also a considerable academic journal literature on them. One would find that there are considerable differences between small-scale fisheries in the Global Northand South, but also many important similarities, one of them their links to a local community. <p>

<p>All chapters focus on small-scale fisheries as a socio-economic and cultural activity, as a social scientist would write them. Small-scale fisheries are all those things, and they are intricately connected and played out in a community setting. The aim of the book is to explain how they come together and must be seen as a whole. I discuss what this means for the way small-scale fisheries work and how they must be governed.