Trans-Sector Livelihood Resilience in an Urban Small-Scale Fishing Community

Edward W. Wintergalen, Stuart Fulton and Renato Molina

Journal of Development Studies, 2025, vol. 61, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Many coastal small-scale fishing (SSF) communities in low and middle-income countries are experiencing urbanisation due to global development and migration patterns. Scholars have documented how processes related to urbanisation present SSF communities with a unique series of opportunities and challenges. However, it is still poorly understood how SSF communities perceive and pursue resilience while adapting to these changing conditions. To address this gap, we conduct ethnographic research among the members of a fishing cooperative in Cancun, Mexico. We find that four factors related to Cancun’s pattern of development have incentivized local fishers to adopt a trans-sector perspective of livelihood resilience through which they view fishing as a lucrative but fleeting opportunity, with some actively planning a transition to non-fishing livelihoods. These four factors are the depletion of local fisheries, rising land values, the proliferation of non-fishing livelihood opportunities, and regional migration patterns. Whether local fishers ultimately prove resilient to the stresses of urbanisation depends partly upon the degree to which local governance and support systems align with this perspective. By contextualizing these findings within the broader literature on SSFs and urban development, we develop a heuristic to hypothesize to what extent these findings are generalizable beyond the study context.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2024.2398437

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