Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender and Globalization in Fishing Economies

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation project is about economic globalization in fishing communities and how gender relationships in households shape the processes that provision the global fish supply chain. Fishing production networks are increasingly integrated into the global economy as consumer demand for fish grows in North America, Europe and Asia. Investigating how such globalization impacts the ways in which men and women relate to one another has important implications for understanding how people affect their environments and access natural resources. This research will address the gender dimension of fishing communities, an element currently missing in the understandings of intensified fishing efforts. It will contribute to knowledge on conservation and development studies, livelihoods research, and political ecology. By considering fisher communities in Senegal, West Africa, where fishing economies have historically displayed highly gendered divisions of labor, this research will investigate the conjugal contracts in fishing households to better understand how these are being reformulated in an era of greater global integration. The research will be accomplished through twelve months of intensive ethnographically-based fieldwork that includes participant observation and semi-structured interviews in coastal Senegal, a major fishing nation and recipient of US-sponsored foreign aid. This project will include the training and employment of two local research assistants in the course of the research and plans are in places for broad dissemination. In addition to standard academic dissemination, the PIs are planning to develop policy briefing papers targeted at policy-makers and industry professionals, and they are also planning on making media presentations in order to publicize the research beyond the immediate study area. This way industry professionals will be provided with information that will contribute to more effective planning and implementation strategies for managing a dynamic fishing industry. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will also provide support to enable a graduate student to establish an independent research career.