From Fisher Economicus to Fisher Socialis: Investigating the Role of Fisher Behaviour for Effective and Equitable Governance

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to advance the emerging field of fisher behaviour. The applied aim is to enhance fisheries and oceans policy, and primarily within the context of small-scale fisheries sustainability. In this dissertation, fisher behaviour is defined as the actions (or inactions) taken by fishers in response to internal and external stimuli and it describes the multitude of ways in which fishers interact with their social and ecological environment. Further, fisher behaviour can manifest through physical action, verbal expression, emotional responses, and cognitive processes.

Fisheries and oceans policy shapes and is simultaneously shaped by fisher behaviour because regulations and enforcement mechanisms that emerge from policy interventions signal what behaviours are allowed and which ones are not. Fishers, in turn, interpret these signals based on their values, needs, and perceptions of legitimacy over resource use. For this reason, when policy does not adequately reflect the diverse range of factors that shape fisher behaviour, regulations can become inefficient or inequitable and may result in poor social and ecological outcomes.

Despite the importance of behaviour and its central role in the pursuit of fisheries and oceans sustainability, fisher behaviour is complex and hence still not well understood. Historically, predominant paradigms of behaviour have been based in neoclassical economics’ Homo Economicus. These models of behaviour predict that rational and self-interested individuals will always prioritize personal gain over the collective interest and, without external interventions, they will inevitably deplete shared resources. Yet, in the last few decades, empirical evidence has challenged these assumptions, and has shown that resource users, including fishers, are able and willing to engage in collective action to solve social dilemmas.

The scope of this dissertation is to use the emerging field of fisher behaviour as a critical lens to strengthen fisheries and oceans policy. To achieve this overarching aim, this dissertation is guided by three interrelated research objectives: 1) To advance and understand fisher behaviour as an emergent and critical, yet understudied, field through the development of a comprehensive conceptual typology based on selected literatures; 2) To map and synthesize the complex interactions between social norms (as a particular manifestation of fisher behaviour), collective action problems, and fisheries policy and to further unpack the role of social norms as a catalyst of collective action in natural resource systems, including in fisheries systems; and 3) To empirically examine the role of social norms and social networks as two fisher behavioural approaches and further assess their implications for policy.

The first objective provides the foundation of this dissertation and frames the context and significance of this research by presenting an overview of alternative behavioural approaches to understand fisher behaviour. The second and third objectives delve deeper into two behavioural approaches, and in doing so, they challenge one of the core assumptions of Homo Economicus: that humans are self-interested, hence incapable of solving collective action problems.

The research methodology used in this dissertation is informed by deductive and inductive approaches and the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods, alongside a theoretical exploration. To further understand fisher behaviour in real world settings, a case study was conducted in Sardinia, Italy, in the context of three small-scale fishing communities adjacent to the Asinara MPA. Fieldwork was conducted both in-person and coordinated remotely in response to COVID-19 pandemic requirements. Research instruments were co-developed in collaboration with BMF, a not-for-profit organization working in the area, and further reviewed by key community informants to ensure coherence with the local context. Further, informal conversations with research partners and members of the local communities added additional depth and confirmed the direction of the research findings.

In Chapter 2, a theoretical exploration of existing literature on fisher behaviour was adopted to provide a typology of key selected approaches that offer an interdisciplinary suite of entry points and complementary opportunities to advance the understanding of fisher behaviour. These approaches include theories, concepts, and perspectives from Critical Social Theory, Systems Approaches, Development Scholarship, and Institutional Scholarship. Two vignettes, one based in Italy, and one based in Canada, were included in this chapter to add further empirical weight to the chapter by delving deeper into two of the lenses presented in the typology.

In Chapter 3, a systematic scoping review was used to map and synthesize existing literature on social norms in fisheries. However, given the limited availability on empirical articles that focused solely on fisheries, the scope of the evidence synthesis was broadened to include other environmental contexts. As such, the systematic scoping review was conducted on peer-reviewed articles (n=69) to map and synthesize ways in which social norms are conceptualized, elicited, and measured in the empirical literature at the intersection of social norms and collective action problems in environmental settings. This evidence synthesis followed the PRISMA-ScR. Findings revealed that social norms can be conceptualized as collective or individual constructs, and they can be elicited or measured using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. Further, social norm definitions do not necessarily correspond to a unique elicitation method. These results suggest that what may initially appear as lack of coherence is instead an opportunity to study social norms from various angles and perspectives.

In Chapter 4, structured surveys (n=81) were used to empirically examine the role of social norms and social networks in the Asinara MPA communities. Findings indicated that the existence of subgroups within networks does not necessarily hinder capacity for collective action, as analyses on the strength and distribution of social norms showed that cooperative behaviours within the Asinara MPA communities were still strong. Importantly, network analyses also elicited the presence of well-connected, central actors within each subgroup. This finding holds promising potential for collective action because central figures can leverage their positions to synthesize subgroup heterogeneity and generate innovative solutions to shared challenges.

Findings and insights of this dissertation contribute to advancing the emerging field of fisher behaviour, while offering alternative approaches to the paradigm of behaviour based in Homo Economicus. Context-relevant knowledge on fisher behaviour can be operationalized in policy settings to catalyze change using insights on who fishers are and the reasons behind their actions. For instance, Challenge 10 of the United Nations 2021-2030 Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development aims to identify barriers to behaviour change to achieve ocean health. However, this aim cannot be achieved using models of human behaviour that underserve and oversimplify the complexity of empirical reality.

Findings from this dissertation translate into theoretical and empirical contributions by helping identify lenses and approaches to enhance fisheries and oceans policy, through a more comprehensive understanding of fisher behaviour. These insights can support policy in three complementary ways. First, knowledge on fisher behaviour can enhance coherence between policy and the social context within which policy instruments are embedded, which includes the behavioural elements of social systems, such as fishers’ values, needs, and beliefs. Second, aligning policy with contextual knowledge about fisher behaviour can improve policy equity by bringing recognition to pre-existing forms of organization (e.g., social networks) and informal rules of behaviour (e.g., social norms) that fishers have developed over long periods of time and persistence. Finally, this research reveals that there are currently untapped opportunities to generate new evidence about fisher behaviour. However, these efforts will require challenging the assumptions that have long underpinned fisheries and oceans policy, and cultivating collaborations across academia, policy practitioners, and fishing communities to inform the development of new methodologies and contextually-relevant understandings.