243
13 Gender in Galician Shell-Fisheries: Transforming for Governability
approach. In Europe, only a handful of studies have dealt with women in fi sheries
and aquaculture.
3
A new dimension is opened up when the gender concept is extrapolated to the
governance of fi sheries: the observer is able to distinguish between the different
roles of women and men in fi sheries, and realizes the bene fi ts of integrating women
into decision-making processes (Bennett 2005 ; Pascual-Fernández et al. 2005 ) .
A gender lens is therefore useful when analyzing governability, or any of its elements. The manner in which women and men are involved or marginalized in governing processes related to solving society’s concerns is an important issue. Too
frequently women are simply obviated in these processes, and their participation in
problem-solving tasks is regarded as irrelevant. The interactive governance perspective (Kooiman et al. 2005a ) is adopted in this paper in order to illustrate the ways in
which civil society can be employed to solve societal problems in fi sheries. This
extends beyond stakeholder participation in the form of collaborations between the
state, civil society and market (Kooiman et al. 2005a ; Jentoft 2007 ; Mikalsen et al.
2007 ) to include women as key actors in the scenario (Frangoudes et al. 2008b ) .
Taking into account the wicked nature of some of the problems confronted, it is
questionable whether civil society—the social sphere located between the state and
individuals, where autonomous groups are organized and activities take place—is
always up to this task (Mikalsen et al. 2007 ; Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2009 ) . This
is of central concern, and we contend that, while civil society may not be up to the
task of co-managing the resources in many cases, as we show in this paper, steps
may be taken to improve civil society’s capacities. Shell fi sh gathering in Galicia
exempli fi es how the capacity of civil society can improve governability, and how
the implementation of an elaborate co-governance scheme has made shell fi sh gathering more sustainable within a decade (Kooiman and Chuenpagdee 2005 ; Jentoft
2007 ) . The scheme was spread out across the entire region, with local populations
assuming important responsibilities for the planning and marketing of the sustainable use of resources, as well as the management of the activity (Marugán Pintos
2004 ; Pascual-Fernández 2005 ; Frangoudes et al. 2008b ) .
3 At the beginning of the twenty- fi rst century, European funding helped overcome some of these
shortcomings. “The role of women in the fi sheries sector,” was drawn up by Elliott MacAlister for
the European Commission (MacAlister 2002 ) . In January 2003, the Commission sponsored a
conference on the role of women in the fi sheries sector. The FEMMES project (contract no.
Q5Tn.2002-01560-CGE, D.G Fisheries), coordinated by the University of Brest (France), was
particularly signi fi cant in this area, both analytically and politically. The project staged three workshops for women in fi sheries from different parts of Europe and also served as the basis for the
conference, “Women in fi sheries and aquaculture: lessons from the past, current actions and ambitions for the future”, held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and funded jointly with the Xunta de
Galicia ( www. fi shwomen.org ). Data gathered during the project form the basis of this chapter.
A more recent publication, “The role of women in the sustainable development of European
fi sheries areas” (Frangoudes et al. 2008a ) , is also related to the FEMMES project and to the
fi ndings of this chapter. Special mention must be made of Begoña Marugán Pintos’s ( 2004 ) work,
one of the key empirical sources for this chapter.
13 Gender in Galician Shell-Fisheries: Transforming for Governability
approach. In Europe, only a handful of studies have dealt with women in fi sheries
and aquaculture.
3
A new dimension is opened up when the gender concept is extrapolated to the
governance of fi sheries: the observer is able to distinguish between the different
roles of women and men in fi sheries, and realizes the bene fi ts of integrating women
into decision-making processes (Bennett 2005 ; Pascual-Fernández et al. 2005 ) .
A gender lens is therefore useful when analyzing governability, or any of its elements. The manner in which women and men are involved or marginalized in governing processes related to solving society’s concerns is an important issue. Too
frequently women are simply obviated in these processes, and their participation in
problem-solving tasks is regarded as irrelevant. The interactive governance perspective (Kooiman et al. 2005a ) is adopted in this paper in order to illustrate the ways in
which civil society can be employed to solve societal problems in fi sheries. This
extends beyond stakeholder participation in the form of collaborations between the
state, civil society and market (Kooiman et al. 2005a ; Jentoft 2007 ; Mikalsen et al.
2007 ) to include women as key actors in the scenario (Frangoudes et al. 2008b ) .
Taking into account the wicked nature of some of the problems confronted, it is
questionable whether civil society—the social sphere located between the state and
individuals, where autonomous groups are organized and activities take place—is
always up to this task (Mikalsen et al. 2007 ; Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2009 ) . This
is of central concern, and we contend that, while civil society may not be up to the
task of co-managing the resources in many cases, as we show in this paper, steps
may be taken to improve civil society’s capacities. Shell fi sh gathering in Galicia
exempli fi es how the capacity of civil society can improve governability, and how
the implementation of an elaborate co-governance scheme has made shell fi sh gathering more sustainable within a decade (Kooiman and Chuenpagdee 2005 ; Jentoft
2007 ) . The scheme was spread out across the entire region, with local populations
assuming important responsibilities for the planning and marketing of the sustainable use of resources, as well as the management of the activity (Marugán Pintos
2004 ; Pascual-Fernández 2005 ; Frangoudes et al. 2008b ) .
3 At the beginning of the twenty- fi rst century, European funding helped overcome some of these
shortcomings. “The role of women in the fi sheries sector,” was drawn up by Elliott MacAlister for
the European Commission (MacAlister 2002 ) . In January 2003, the Commission sponsored a
conference on the role of women in the fi sheries sector. The FEMMES project (contract no.
Q5Tn.2002-01560-CGE, D.G Fisheries), coordinated by the University of Brest (France), was
particularly signi fi cant in this area, both analytically and politically. The project staged three workshops for women in fi sheries from different parts of Europe and also served as the basis for the
conference, “Women in fi sheries and aquaculture: lessons from the past, current actions and ambitions for the future”, held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and funded jointly with the Xunta de
Galicia ( www. fi shwomen.org ). Data gathered during the project form the basis of this chapter.
A more recent publication, “The role of women in the sustainable development of European
fi sheries areas” (Frangoudes et al. 2008a ) , is also related to the FEMMES project and to the
fi ndings of this chapter. Special mention must be made of Begoña Marugán Pintos’s ( 2004 ) work,
one of the key empirical sources for this chapter.