Can we be both resilient and well, and what choices do people have? Incorporating agency into the resilience debate from a fisheries perspective.

Coulthard, Sarah (2012) Can we be both resilient and well, and what choices do people have? Incorporating agency into the resilience debate from a fisheries perspective. Ecology and Society, 17 (1). Art. 4. ISSN 1708-3087

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04483-170104

Abstract

In the midst of a global fisheries crisis, there has been great interest in the fostering of adaptation and resilience in fisheries, as a means to reduce vulnerability and improve the capacity of fishing society to adapt to change. However, enhanced resilience does not automatically result in improved well-being of people, and adaptation strategies are riddled with difficult choices, or trade-offs, that people must negotiate. This paper uses the context of fisheries to explore some apparent tensions between adapting to change on the one hand, and the pursuit of well-being on the other, and illustrates that trade-offs can operate at different levels of scale. It argues that policies that seek to support fisheries resilience need to be built on a better understanding of the wide range of consequences that adaptation has on fisher well-being, the agency people exert in negotiating their adaptation strategies, and how this feeds back into the resilience of fisheries as a social-ecological system. The paper draws from theories on agency and adaptive preferences to illustrate how agency might be better incorporated into the resilience debate.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: adaptation, agency, fisheries, resilience
Subjects: F700 Ocean Sciences
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences
Department: Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Social Sciences
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Ay Okpokam
Date Deposited: 23 Apr 2013 09:14
Last Modified: 17 Dec 2023 14:19
URI: https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/12381

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