Session Information
23 SES 9.5 PE/PS, Poster Exhibition / Poster Session
Contribution
This poster will present an analysis of the relationship between the diverse perspectives highlighted during research undertaken in the Azores islands, Portugal and how the various constructions of knowledge can influence further public opinion and policy.
The question, “respecting or consuming fishers?” makes reference to the often ignored antagonism between various social classes over the concept of sustainability. Who decides what it is that society is trying to sustain? The tourist who pays 25 Euros for grilled Boca Negro or the fisher who was paid less than 50 cents per kilo for catching that fish? Whose knowledge of the ocean informs policy? Fishers and their activities are largely invisible to the whale watching tourists who come to the Azores because the tourist’s stories do not include fishers.Additionally, these fisher-less stories are hard to dispel if the original understanding of the world is largely fisher-less. As humans develop, we come to know the world initially by experiencing it as real and we construct knowledge gained through later experiences in ways that complement our original knowledge (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). By choosing or creating concepts of reality that match our existing concepts, “cumulative continuity” and choosing social interactions with people who share the same concepts, “interactive continuity”, we reinforce our world or “environment” as the truth (Fraser, 2001). Some stories block other stories and create a world in which only some stories can be told. Language, culture and type of knowledge play important roles in this process as well.
Scientific information is conceptualized as being context free - if deemed “true”, is true regardless of who speaks the knowledge. This type of knowledge can be expressed with confidence by anyone and therefore usually “out-competes” more ambiguous stories. For instance, the feeding habits of a particular whale may take a stronger position in knowledge construction processes about the sea than the knowledge of a fisher who accepts that the ocean is uncontrollable and largely unknowable. Often some knowledge out-competes others because the knowledge is not recognized as science if it comes from a source other than scientists. Neves-Graça (2006) found that some famous whale biologists owed much of their knowledge to whalers and the whaling industry, yet the knowledge of whalers was not sought when regulations for whale watching were developed in the Azores.
This issue of clashes of perspectives is important because there is inequality between the holders of these perspectives based on actual physical experiences (environmental justice, Bullard, 1994; Shiva, 1994) and the power each possesses to construct the official narratives of natural and cultural heritage of the ocean from which we learn and make use of to create policies such as the EU Common Fisheries Policy.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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