133
8 Applying the Governability Concept in Fisheries…
scales internal to and beyond the case, and highlight more social and economic
characteristics than natural science features. Moreover, all of these instances can
actually be supplemented and debated. This fi ts in the interactive governance
approach of not treating systems as objective facts lying ‘out there’, but instead
as heuristic tools (Jentoft 2007 , 361). In this line of thought, Kooiman ( 2008 ,
174) points out that: “What a system looks like, how it can be broken down, and
what its boundaries and other qualities might be, depends on the perspectives of
the observers.”
Governability and Systems-to-Be-Governed
There are two basic ways of considering what constitutes a system-to-be-governed
in fi sheries studies. The fi rst takes a spatial, or territorial, approach, and is concerned with de fi ning system identities and boundaries. The ecosystem approach is a
prominent exponent of this spatial orientation (Garcia et al. 2003 ) . The second
focuses on what have become known as value chains (Geref fi et al. 2005 ) , or, in our
fi eld of interest, fi sh chains. The primary interest here is in identifying and tracing
connections as they occur from an ecosystem to the consumer. The following discussion is based on the fi sh chain approach.
Diversity, Complexity, Dynamics and Scale of Fish Chains
The Fish for Life volume (Kooiman et al. 2005 ) presents the system-to-begoverned as a bundle of fi sh chains running from an ecosystem to the consumer’s
plate. Fish chains constitute the basic unit of any fi sheries system and are therefore the object of governance activity. Within any fi sheries system there are generally numerous fi sh chains, organized around various target species or seafood
markets. These chains involve a variety of primary actors, such as the fi sh, fi shers,
processors, traders, transporters, wholesalers and retailers. Each category can of
course be subdivided further (for example, the category ‘ fi sh’ consists of numerous marketable species, whereas fi shers can be divided into owners, skippers and
crew members). Moreover, each fi sh chain involves a range of secondary actors –
other species in an ecosystem and people who create the conditions upon which
the fi sh chain operates. The latter include net makers, engine shops, and ship
builders, right down to the road workers paving the routes that transport fi sh from
landing centers to markets.
Individual fi sh chains vary with regard to their diversity, complexity, dynamics,
and scale. The same can be said for the bundles of fi sh chains that constitute a
fi sheries system. Although diversity, complexity and dynamics exist in a continuum,
we choose to distinguish between two basic values: high and low. We also discuss
some of the implications of spatial scale.
8 Applying the Governability Concept in Fisheries…
scales internal to and beyond the case, and highlight more social and economic
characteristics than natural science features. Moreover, all of these instances can
actually be supplemented and debated. This fi ts in the interactive governance
approach of not treating systems as objective facts lying ‘out there’, but instead
as heuristic tools (Jentoft 2007 , 361). In this line of thought, Kooiman ( 2008 ,
174) points out that: “What a system looks like, how it can be broken down, and
what its boundaries and other qualities might be, depends on the perspectives of
the observers.”
Governability and Systems-to-Be-Governed
There are two basic ways of considering what constitutes a system-to-be-governed
in fi sheries studies. The fi rst takes a spatial, or territorial, approach, and is concerned with de fi ning system identities and boundaries. The ecosystem approach is a
prominent exponent of this spatial orientation (Garcia et al. 2003 ) . The second
focuses on what have become known as value chains (Geref fi et al. 2005 ) , or, in our
fi eld of interest, fi sh chains. The primary interest here is in identifying and tracing
connections as they occur from an ecosystem to the consumer. The following discussion is based on the fi sh chain approach.
Diversity, Complexity, Dynamics and Scale of Fish Chains
The Fish for Life volume (Kooiman et al. 2005 ) presents the system-to-begoverned as a bundle of fi sh chains running from an ecosystem to the consumer’s
plate. Fish chains constitute the basic unit of any fi sheries system and are therefore the object of governance activity. Within any fi sheries system there are generally numerous fi sh chains, organized around various target species or seafood
markets. These chains involve a variety of primary actors, such as the fi sh, fi shers,
processors, traders, transporters, wholesalers and retailers. Each category can of
course be subdivided further (for example, the category ‘ fi sh’ consists of numerous marketable species, whereas fi shers can be divided into owners, skippers and
crew members). Moreover, each fi sh chain involves a range of secondary actors –
other species in an ecosystem and people who create the conditions upon which
the fi sh chain operates. The latter include net makers, engine shops, and ship
builders, right down to the road workers paving the routes that transport fi sh from
landing centers to markets.
Individual fi sh chains vary with regard to their diversity, complexity, dynamics,
and scale. The same can be said for the bundles of fi sh chains that constitute a
fi sheries system. Although diversity, complexity and dynamics exist in a continuum,
we choose to distinguish between two basic values: high and low. We also discuss
some of the implications of spatial scale.