Through ethnographic research based primarily in Prince Rupert, British
Columbia, this dissertation explores the ecological and social significance of commercial
fishers' political knowledge. Moving beyond the ecological thrust of local knowledge
research, this ethnography emphasizes the material and political basis of fishers'
perceptions and understandings. The study focuses on the politicized experience of
commercial fishers in resource management contexts and the way in which their
knowledge is constructed and positioned by power relations, resource competition, and
economics.
Analyzing a series of local knowledge encounters in the fishing industry of British
Columbia - moments of conflict between competing knowledges over issues of
conservation, co-management, and research - this dissertation reveals the significance of
fishers' political knowledge in determining their fishing behaviour and their reactions to
fisheries policy and to fisheries research. Fisheries regulation is explored as the defining
force impacting livelihoods of fishers and shaping their knowledge, by structuring
fishers' interaction with the environment, and with each other.
This dissertation historicizes, problematizes, and differentiates local knowledge,
emphasizing the entanglement of ecological and political knowledge as forms of
knowledge that are implicated in the construction of each other. This dissertation argues
for a more holistic approach to fisheries knowledge research, which does not focus only
upon the ecological knowledge of resource users. Rather than only asking fishers what
they know about fish, researchers must ask them about fisheries in order to explore and
resolve the structural problems of human resource use. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/17086 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Butler, Caroline F. |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
Page generated in 0.0115 seconds