Crisis of Meanings: Divergent Experiences and Perceptions of the Marine Environment in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

The oceans of the world are regularly depicted as under threat from human exploitation with the problem portrayed as being of ‘global’ concern. In a world market characterised by the division of labour, many of those who eat fish do so without directly experiencing the ocean as a domain of productive utility. Rather, their encounters are with representations that depict the ‘natural’ world as an aesthetic object of contemplation, and environmentalist discourses that identify human activities as threatening marine ecosystems. So prevalent is this experience that tangible institutions, such as state fisheries management bodies, have emerged, acting to reinforce the ontology of this ‘contemplated’ ocean, giving weight to the illusion that humans can, and should, appreciate it only from afar. In this representation, commercial fishers are regularly depicted as transgressing a ‘natural’ boundary between humans and the environment. It is when the world is simultaneously encountered as an object of consumptive utility and aesthetic utility that the human role in the environment becomes ambiguous and a sense of crisis arises. This paper investigates disjunctions in experiences and understandings that contribute to environmental anxiety, and debates over the appropriate use of the ocean.

Encrypted Landscapes, Nation-States

“…While Kapferer, and myself in other work (King, 2005; see also Dwyer, King, & Minnegal, 2008), have been concerned with the process of anonymization of people within bureaucratic institutional structures and the disjuncture between the representation of citizens and the experience of actual people, my focus in this article is to detail the anonymization of the Australian landscape within bureaucratic institutional structures and the disjuncture between the corporeal experience of the ANBG gardens and the complex and dynamic environments that are represented therein. Just as actual people are anonymized through the process whereby they are represented within a bureaucratic institution (such as the Australian Taxation Office, the National Census, or the Medicare system), landscapes are anonymized through the process whereby they are represented in bureaucratic, architecturally designed environments.…”

Managing shark fishermen in southern Australia: A critique

“…Since 2000, we have worked as anthropologists with commercial fishermen in southern Australia. King has focused on the highly dispersed community of shark fishermen [6,7]; Dwyer and Minnegal have focused on a community of several hundreds boat owners, skippers and crew who target a mix of species by a mix of methods at Lakes Entrance in southeast Victoria [8][9][10]. After a brief account of the history of the fishery we discuss (a) the way in which quota was first allocated and the litigation and review process that followed and (b) the extent of quota consolidation, exit and turnover since 2001.…”

Human-animal studies in Australia: perspectives from the arts, humanities and social sciences

“…There already exists, in addition to the work by authors featured in this volume, a variety of published sources on human-animal relations written by both established and new humanities and social science scholars residing in Australia, including work that addresses specifically Australian subjects (see for example Bulbeck 2005, Munro 2005, Franklin 2005& 1999, Robin 2001, Peace 2002, Anderson 1997& 1995, Gaynor 1999a& 1999b, Smith 1999, Lloyd 2005, Freeman 2005, King 2005, Touissaint 2005). The particular combination of themes and foci in the Australian context will be the unique and identifying mark of human-animal studies scholarship as it further develops across the Australian academy.…”