Examining the socio-cultural context of fishing lives on the Llŷn Peninsula, UK



Gustavsson, M
(2016) Examining the socio-cultural context of fishing lives on the Llŷn Peninsula, UK. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

It has been argued that socio-cultural aspects of fisheries sustainability have been omitted in favour of environmental and economic perspectives within marine and fisheries policy. Responding to recent calls to pay greater attention to these overlooked aspects, this thesis is examining fishing lives (including those of fishing family members) in their socio-cultural contexts. This is done by drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptual ideas of habitus, field and capital alongside three additional literatures: i) the application of Bourdieu’s ideas in the ‘good farmer’ literature, ii) the lifecourse approach, and iii) the gender identity lens – which taken together seeks to understand how fishing capitals are acquired over time from different positions within the fishing field. The research utilises qualitative semi-structured interviews and participant observation in a case study of the Llŷn peninsula small-scale fishery to investigate the socio-cultural context of fishing lives. A number of important contributions to the wider fisheries social sciences are made. First of all, the thesis develops the new conceptual idea of the ‘good fisher’ which is constructed around the display of embodied cultural capital alongside fishers’ reputation of complying with the unwritten ‘rules of the game’. Secondly, the thesis finds that the socio-cultural contexts are important for getting on the ‘fishing ladder’, and interrelated to this, the fishing lifecourse is linked across generations. A third contribution is that fishers construct a ‘localised socially dominant masculinity’ in which fishing masculinities are hybrid, multiple and situated. As a final point the thesis found that the pre-existing socio-cultural contexts are important for how fishers respond to marine and fisheries policy schemes and it is suggested that new policies need to recognise these contexts to be environmentally as well as culturally sustainable.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Divisions: Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 31 Aug 2017 09:25
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 07:20
DOI: 10.17638/03005120
Supervisors:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3005120