vi
Foreword
urge synthesizing an “image” of the system’s governance capacity by focusing on
its inherent components and dynamics, which either promote or discourage that.
Furthermore, they suggest the system to be governed should be analyzed with
regard to four cardinal features of all social systems: diversity, complexity, dynamics , and differences in scale . And they also suggest that it should be investigated
from the perspective of a set of concerns that impact governability – here emphasizing such contemporary concerns as social justice, livelihoods, food security , and
ecosystem health .
For analyzing the governing system a number of foci are likewise suggested,
including the governance realms that pertain to the state, markets, civil society , and
hybrids of these. And to analyze the dynamics of the governing interactions , they
urge looking for interactional factors that ultimately promote or inhibit effective
governance.
Obviously, by taking such a broadly holistic approach, it is unlikely that a panacea will emerge, much less a formulaic set of rules for assessing the governability
of a fi sheries or aquaculture system. Each system will still have to be studied with
regard to its own particular history, organization, dynamics, and contemporary
circumstances – whatever these may be.
The authors also acknowledge that the governance of some social systems may
pose a “wicked problem,” that is, a problem that is so complex that it is highly resistant to resolution or improvement. In such cases no solution may be possible, and
there may be no foreseeable end point at which the problem could ever be considered to be resolved. But into these seemingly hopeless situations the authors now
beam a new ray of light, stressing that by viewing them through the lens of governability their internally contradictory concerns, disjointed components, confounded
interactional dynamics, and other obstacles to their governability can be identi fi ed.
Indeed, the governability approach’s emphasis on discovering governing interactions
is what distinguishes it from most of the other major theoretical approaches that
have been offered heretofore.
It now seems clear that the crisis in the world’s fi sheries was a much larger and
more complex problem than many had imagined. Yet, examining it through the lens
of governability may offer the best hope for alleviating it – as well as alleviating
similar crises in other social systems.
James R. McGoodwin
James R. McGoodwin is author of Crisis in the World’s Fisheries: People, Problems,
and Policies (Stanford University Press, 1990). A former Fellow in the Marine
Policy and Ocean Management Program of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, he is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, and
Research Af fi liate in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of
Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Foreword
urge synthesizing an “image” of the system’s governance capacity by focusing on
its inherent components and dynamics, which either promote or discourage that.
Furthermore, they suggest the system to be governed should be analyzed with
regard to four cardinal features of all social systems: diversity, complexity, dynamics , and differences in scale . And they also suggest that it should be investigated
from the perspective of a set of concerns that impact governability – here emphasizing such contemporary concerns as social justice, livelihoods, food security , and
ecosystem health .
For analyzing the governing system a number of foci are likewise suggested,
including the governance realms that pertain to the state, markets, civil society , and
hybrids of these. And to analyze the dynamics of the governing interactions , they
urge looking for interactional factors that ultimately promote or inhibit effective
governance.
Obviously, by taking such a broadly holistic approach, it is unlikely that a panacea will emerge, much less a formulaic set of rules for assessing the governability
of a fi sheries or aquaculture system. Each system will still have to be studied with
regard to its own particular history, organization, dynamics, and contemporary
circumstances – whatever these may be.
The authors also acknowledge that the governance of some social systems may
pose a “wicked problem,” that is, a problem that is so complex that it is highly resistant to resolution or improvement. In such cases no solution may be possible, and
there may be no foreseeable end point at which the problem could ever be considered to be resolved. But into these seemingly hopeless situations the authors now
beam a new ray of light, stressing that by viewing them through the lens of governability their internally contradictory concerns, disjointed components, confounded
interactional dynamics, and other obstacles to their governability can be identi fi ed.
Indeed, the governability approach’s emphasis on discovering governing interactions
is what distinguishes it from most of the other major theoretical approaches that
have been offered heretofore.
It now seems clear that the crisis in the world’s fi sheries was a much larger and
more complex problem than many had imagined. Yet, examining it through the lens
of governability may offer the best hope for alleviating it – as well as alleviating
similar crises in other social systems.
James R. McGoodwin
James R. McGoodwin is author of Crisis in the World’s Fisheries: People, Problems,
and Policies (Stanford University Press, 1990). A former Fellow in the Marine
Policy and Ocean Management Program of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, he is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, and
Research Af fi liate in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of
Colorado, Boulder, Colorado