Social‐Ecological Restructuring and Implications for Social Values

Abstract

Designing appropriate coping strategies for North American traditional fishing communities in the face of global climate change demands, among other things, that we:1. identify, characterize, and document the full range of values and services flowing from and shaped by these ecosystems; and 2. understand how these values are shaped by interactive processes of global change.This chapter addresses these demands through a focus on fishing communities dependent on the marine social-ecological systems of the Canadian Provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia, and the American State of New Jersey. In recent decades these systems have undergone dramatic processes of restructuring, and have moved in directions defined by new ecological realities, harvesting technologies, and management paradigms focused on conservation and economic rationality. While in a direct sense these systems continue to provide socio-cultural and economic benefits, this chapter highlights how new types of social-ecological interactions have re-shaped associated social structures and processes within and between these communities, including size and connection with fishing industry, age structures, dislocation to urban areas, internal stratification, and corporatization of the fishery. It next explores how these changes appear to have affected some of the social values associated with these systems. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how these findings might inform the development of appropriate coping strategies.