Small-Scale Fishing and Sustainability. An Ethnographic Approach to the Case of Self-Employed Fishermen in the South-East of Spain

Gabriel López-Martínez, Klaus Schriewer and Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez
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Gabriel López-Martínez: Department of Contemporary Humanities, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Klaus Schriewer: Center for European Studies (CEEUM), Faculty of Philosophy, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez: International Chair of Social Responsibility, Catholic University of Murcia, 30107 Murcia, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: Small-scale fishermen, in contrast to industrial fishing boats, develop a sustainable relationship with their activity from three perspectives: social, economic, and environmental. From this hypothesis, we analyze the ethnographic material obtained in extensive fieldwork (in-depth interviews and participant observation) developed in the four main ports of the region of Murcia (Spain). From this field work the existence of two other types of fishermen (life-modes) besides small-scale fishermen is derived: small entrepreneurs and wage-earners. In different proportions, all three share the consequences of the various reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Despite the similarities, this paper shows different strategies, in each of the cases, that justify their permanence in their activity, taking into account the labor modality, as well as their relationship with the idea of sustainability. Conclusions show that because small-scale self-employed fishermen are involved much more than the two other life-modes in the totality of tasks related to their profession in that they own both the means and relations of production (simple commodity production), they are best placed to achieve social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

Keywords: small-scale fishing; social sustainability; economic sustainability; self-employed; life-modes; ethnography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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