Navigating Coastal Dynamics: Illegal Institutional Arrangements, Gangs’ Activities, and Knowledge Mobility in the Gulf of Guayaquil

Wendy Chávez‐Páez and Anna‐Katharina Hornidge
Additional contact information
Wendy Chávez‐Páez: Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany / German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Germany
Anna‐Katharina Hornidge: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Germany / University of Bonn, Germany

Ocean and Society, 2025, vol. 2

Abstract: This study investigates how corruption and criminal gangs affect small‐scale fisheries, driving forced displacement and reshaping fishing knowledge through the process of epistemic mobility. The research focuses on the interactions between the fishing communities of Puerto Bolívar and Puerto Roma within the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador. By tracing the movement of fishers and their knowledge, the study reveals how the imitation and attempted learning of fishing techniques, such as the use of plastic tubes to detect fish, occur between communities. Displaced due to the illegal encroachment of semi‐industrial vessels bolicheros protected by criminal gangs, Puerto Bolívar’s fishers have been forced to migrate northward to fish near Puerto Roma, and then return to Puerto Bolívar. While they are fishing in the northern waters, Puerto Roma’s fishers observe their techniques and attempt to imitate them. Nonetheless, the transfer of this knowledge is imitative and incomplete, as it is observed from a distance rather than fully understood. The study highlights that, while the displacement caused by corruption and illegal activities brings fishers into new contexts, it is the fishers themselves who contribute to the mobility and transformation of knowledge. By focusing on epistemic mobility, this study highlights how knowledge is not always successfully transferred but is adapted, hybridized, or even resisted, offering new insights into the resilience and vulnerability of small‐scale fishers in the context of systemic corruption and ecological conflict.

Keywords: conflicts in fisheries; criminal gangs; epistemic mobility; fishing industry; illegal institutional arrangements; knowledge; small‐scale fisheries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/oceanandsociety/article/view/8851 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:ocesoc:v2:y:2025:a:8851

Access Statistics for this article

Ocean and Society is currently edited by Fábio Vicente

More articles in Ocean and Society from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().