Interactive Learning and Governance Transformation for Securing Blue Justice for Small-Scale Fisheries

Abstract

In the “Future We Want,” states and non-state actors are invited to contribute to achieving sustainable development goals through various means and mechanisms. This includes securing justice for the most marginalized and disadvantaged sectors like small-scale fisheries, whose rights and access to resources are threatened by Blue Economy/Growth initiatives. While strong and just institutions are imperative to securing sustainable small-scale fisheries, they are not sufficient conditions for obtaining justice. As illustrated in this paper, justice must be secured in the daily interactions between small-scale fisheries actors and other stakeholders, including governments, by means of interactive learning and involving governance transformation.

Intertwined realities — hybrid institutions in the Peruvian fisheries and aquaculture sectors

“…As in the studies following an interactive governance’s framework (Kooiman and Bavinck 2013 ), we acknowledge the importance of focusing on the interaction between state and non-state actors to understand the different hybrid forms of governance (Vince and Howard 2017 ; Yasmin et.al. 2022 ) and the need of empower and incorporating local producers and stakeholders in knowledge networks to grasp and eventually solve governance problems (Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2022 ). In contributing to this literature, we show that interactions not necessary leads to collaboration or the formation of networks for solving governance problems, but to the institutionalization of formal-informal-illegal entanglements through which power inequalities can be produced and reproduced.…”

“…This policy has resulted in increases in production and state revenues. However, the model has marginalized most artisanal fishers who typically produce mainly for local consumption and internal markets as in other parts of the world (Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2022 ). Against this backdrop, fishers have found the way to by-pass some regulatory restrictions and seize global market opportunities.…”

“…The studies on interactive governance show the importance of interactions between state and non-state actors in shaping new governance frameworks and possible solutions for sustainability (Jentoft, and Chuenpagdee 2022 .). However, governance hybridity may also generate new challenging scenarios for policy innovation and implementation (Clever 2012 , 2015 ; Blundo and Le Meur 2009 ; de Sardan, 2015 ).…”

“No time for nonsense!”: The organization of learning and its limits in evolving governance

“…Jentoft and Chuenpagdee (2022), in their analysis of learning and governance transformation in small-scale fisheries, take a hopeful perspective on this differentiation, and argue that learning for more than just governance outcomes is possible (cf Czarniawska-Joerges, 1989). Blue Growth initiatives, focusing on the marine environment as a bio-production system, tend to marginalize small-scale fisheries.…”

“…It also means that processes of emergence lead to a differentiation between individuals, organizations, and governance systems, each possessing their own logic of reproduction, and hence, possibilities for learning (Luhmann, 2018;Mingers, 2003). Jentoft and Chuenpagdee (2022), in their analysis of learning and governance transformation in small-scale fisheries, take a hopeful perspective on this differentiation, and argue that learning for more than just governance outcomes is possible (cf Czarniawska-Joerges, 1989). Blue Growth initiatives, focusing on the marine environment as a bio-production system, tend to marginalize small-scale fisheries.…”