Swimming upstream: community economies for a different coastal rural development in Sweden

Abstract

The EU Blue Growth agenda is being implemented at a time when European coastal fisheries and traditional fishing communities are struggling to survive or have already vanished from areas where they used to flourish. Driven by the strong conviction that current disadvantaged and vulnerable coastal fishers still have a central role to play in rural development, local level initiatives are calling for a different future for this fishery sector. The participants in these initiatives insist that coastal fisheries should not be driven to extinction, despite their low economic profitability and thus minimal contribution to economic growth compared to large-scale enterprises. Through participatory observation and informal interviews, we investigate one of these local level initiatives on the Swedish Baltic Sea coast and analyse how it aligns with a community economies' project based on a different economic perspective. We describe first the primary activities carried out by the initiative and follow by an examination on what drove it, how it has been maintained, and how it might spread. We conclude on the potentials of the community economies framework and project to advance a Blue degrowth agenda based on difference and not necessarily less.

(In)justice and the blue economy

“…The contradictions of easily achieving economic growth and sustainability simultaneously raise important questions on the dynamics of growth and potentially of degrowth, as called for by some authors (Hadjimichael, 2018;Schreiber et al, 2020).…”

“…The contradictions of easily achieving economic growth and sustainability simultaneously raise important questions on the dynamics of growth and potentially of degrowth, as called for by some authors (Hadjimichael, 2018; Schreiber et al, 2020). In discussing the blue economy in the Faroe Islands, Bogadóttir (2020) characterises the blue growth discourse as concerned with achieving greater revenues from renewable (marine) resources, with emphasis on the need to sustainably manage these resources.…”

“…For example, narrowly framed ocean policies developed solely to target economic growth can exacerbate social inequalities and further patterns of ecological deterioration (Jentoft, 2019; Schreiber et al, 2020). Cisneros‐Montemayor et al (2019) warn against repeating the negative social and environmental impacts that have resulted from historical development pathways.…”

Harnessing the Power of Stories for Rural Sustainability: Reflections on Community-Based Research on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland

“…We draw from Asset-Based Community Development, painting a 'glass halffull' portrait of community sustainability that can be especially appropriate for marginalised communities (Kretzmann & McKnight 1993). We also consider notions of 'diverse economies', acknowledging the value of self-provisioning, volunteering, social enterprise, and other activities on the fringes of capitalist exchange (Arias Schreiber et al 2020). In this broader conception of value, intangible assets, which often are not measured by mainstream sustainability indicators (Ramos 2019), can be harnessed to trigger a 'spiraling up' of community wellbeing, combining interdependent forms of social, natural, economic, cultural and human capital (Emery & Flora 2006).…”

Integrating human and ecological dimensions: The importance of stakeholders’ perceptions and participation on the performance of fisheries co-management in Chile

“…Consequently, the current dilemma facing fishery management is not just the limited understanding of the fish stocks or external pressures, but also knowledge of the human dimension and how it fits into fishery management [10][11][12][13]. There is a broad theoretical background for the role of the human dimension in fishery co-management [10,[14][15][16][17][18][19] but it is necessary to test this empirically with real fishing communities in order to understand and improve sustainable fisheries [20][21][22]. The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF, article 12) underlines the need to investigate and plan fishery measures, including social, legal and institutional aspects [23].…”