This is my third collection of essays on small-scale fisheries published in the TBTI Global E-book Series. The first volume, titled ‘Life Above Water’, came out in 2019 and ‘The Gift of Community’ in 2023. Essays are different from the standard research papers in scientific journals. They are more like writing newspaper or magazine articles. It is a form of academic writing I find enjoyable, especially at this late stage in my academic career. This book is more of an autobiography than the previous two as in many chapters I reflect on my life experience and what I have learned about small-scale fisheries over the years.
As with the other two volumes, I have found inspiration in the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines), which FAO initiated ten years ago. They are packed with observations, concepts, and arguments that are intriguing from a social science perspective. There is hardly a chapter where I do not refer to the SSF Guidelines… They were not written in the sequence they appear in the book and can be read in the order the reader may prefer. They are individual, stand-alone essays, and do not build on each other, although the same theme may be discussed and expanded upon in several chapters. A reader would therefore find cross-references between chapters.
Svein Jentoft
Professor Emeritus at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
“As in his previous writing and the first two books, and even more so in this one, Svein brings wisdom from philosophers and big thinkers in social sciences into fisheries discourse, which helps broaden our understanding about small-scale fisheries and transform how we approach them in research, and in governance.
‘Reading Small-Scale Fisheries’ is like reading Svein Jentoft, with the turn on every page bringing new awareness about how to think about small-scale fisheries, and a growing appreciation for what it means to be a fisheries researcher.
We have no doubt that Svein’s current book will join his first two on our ‘most downloaded’ list. Altogether, the trilogy offers 90 essays about small-scale fisheries, written by an all-around small-scale fisheries expert, whose knowledge of and appreciation for small-scale fisheries community shines through on every page. It is quite a treat.”
Ratana Chuenpagdee
TBTI Global
As with art, there is no one way of looking at and reading small-scale fisheries. You can think of them as a sector, an industry, a culture, a job opportunity, and a way of life. You can view them broadly, with a statistical lens and capture how they appear in an aggregate form. But you can also read them like the two professors were reading the Roman paintings and buildings. Then you search for the subtle details, the things that easily go unnoticed but which you should not miss because they are central to the whole. A holistic approach to small-scale fisheries cannot only focus on the broad picture. It must also examine the details. But then you would need concepts for them, like those of “interactive governance” (Kooiman et al., 2005), which has inspired TBTI’s work on small-scale fisheries.
The book is available for free. Click on the button below to download the e-book file.
Check out the previous two volumes in this trilogy
About the author
Svein Jentoft is Professor Emeritus at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. His long career as a social scientist, specializing on fisheries management and fisheries communities, has yielded numerous articles and books. He has been involved in, and led, many international projects in both the Global South and North. Jentoft is a founding member of TBTI, and has been leading a working group on ʻGoverning the Governanceʼ and a research cluster related to the ʻSSF Guidelinesʼ. He has edited and authored several TBTI books, including ʻThe Gift of Communityʼ (2023).