Fishing for Solutions: Expertise and Legitimacy in the Governance of Fisheries and Marine Environments
How to produce and utilise knowledge in the best way for sustainable environmental governance is a pressing question of our time. It involves the assembling of credible expertise from different actors (scientists and other experts) in processes that are regarded democratically legitimate. However, these two governance components (expertise and legitimacy) can be in conflict, when science steered expert advice informs the governance of the commons. EU fisheries management, serving as empirical case in this book project, is a chief example of this tension. The book is divided into a conceptual part, introducing theoretical research developments about expertise and legitimacy in environmental governance, and an empirical part, which explores these issues in fisheries and marine governance. This domain still lacks a coherent contribution from a critical social science perspective that investigates the interaction and mutual dependencies of expertise and legitimacy in relation to different actors and their agency. The book aims to fill this gap and contributes to ongoing research debates for building long term sustainable resource management, that also includes the social aspects of sustainability (equity, social justice, distribution of power and participation). It also draws lessons for environmental governance and sustainably science generally. The project includes research visits to the universities of Wageningen (fall 2023) and Tromsø (spring 2024).
Final report
Background
In this RJSAB project I am writing a book, preliminary entitled “Fishing for alternatives: knowledge for sustainability transformations in fisheries and environmental governance”. The book reveals key governance challenges related to the use of expertise for sustainable development and environmental decision-making through illustrations of existing science-policy-society interactions in fisheries governance. My overall objective is to find out what different types of knowledge are needed for transformations to sustainability in fisheries management – and what lessons can be drawn from these insights for environmental governance generally.
The chief hypothesis presented in the book is that the existing knowledge system informing fisheries management (and similarly other areas of environmental governance) is, because of its exclusive reliance on quantitative, science-based expertise from biology and economics, not sufficient for addressing the complex socio-ecological problems that interweave fisheries and coastal governance as well as other environmental domains.
The book addresses a fundamental, yet complex research question: Why does the existing knowledge-base of fisheries management, with profound expertise and experience, channelled and administered though elaborated institutional structures that organise the application of that expertise for sustainable extraction of fish resources not ensure a long-term sustainable use of this renewable ocean resource?
This question is addressed in two successive steps. First, three empirical chapters (3-5) interrogate what kind of environmental expertise is sought by the existing fisheries management approach and what kind of dilemmas and challenges arise for advisory science and its use in deliberation and decision-making. Secondly, chapter 6 and 7 embark on a search for alternative approaches by reviewing the existing fisheries research literature for different approaches to organise the application of knowledge for management and decision-making that may result in more sustainable governance systems in terms of social and environmental justice.
1. Project results, publications and conclusions
During the starting phase of writing the book I conducted substantial work to revise the originally planned structure, the main thrust and the outline of the book (chapters & contents). The original idea from the application was to write a synthesis of my own research over the past 15 years. While this idea has been kept, I found a new entry point to present the overarching narrative for this book project. This new perspective, which questions the adequacy of existing knowledge systems for sustainability transformations is expressed in the hypothesis and research question above and is intended to present a new research agenda. Beyond synthesising insights and drawing lessons on existing problems and challenges with expertise and legitimacy in fisheries governance (my previous research), I also propose a new research agenda that embarks on a search for alternative knowledge systems that are more suitable for achieving real transformations to sustainability in fisheries governance and beyond.
This setup informs the new structure of the book: from detailed descriptions and empirical analyses of the institutions and processes that apply knowledge for fisheries management (chapters 3-5), the remaining part of the book sets out to explore what different trajectories can be found, imagined or developed as alternative pathways to sustainability and asks which type of expertise and knowledge processes would be needed for achieving such transformations (chapters 6 & 7).
The introduction of the book with outlines for all chapters was presented at a workshop at the Nordic Environmental Social Science conference in June in in Åbo/Finland and the substantial comments which I received were used to revise the draft texts over the summer 2024. In the autumn I focused my schedule to get coherent writing time for the empirical chapters, partly conducted at the Swedish House in Kavalla (Greece). The central preliminary conclusions that I can hitherto draw from these empirical chapters are that fisheries management, due to its hierarchic, top-down and science-centred approach, exemplifies a basic tension between expertise and democracy as it involves the insertion of an expert-steered, technocratic decision-making process into an area that concerns the governance of the commons, which is ultimately affecting the wellbeing of (fishing) people, their communities and coastal populations. These tensions and associated challenges are explored in chapters 4 and 5 respectively, while synthesising lessons are drawn in chapter 6 and 7, which subsequently propose a new research agenda to search for, explore, and combine insights from alternative approaches that can, although marginalised, excluded or suppressed, be found in the existing literature.
The key focus of this new research agenda is to interrogate the nexus between the existing problem framing of fisheries, the management goals and objectives resulting from this framing and the knowledge that is sought and applied for this intersection.
Beside the book project, I conducted some minor work on additional publications that directly relate to the RJSAB book project. This regards three journal articles (work with revisions for Sundqvist & Linke 2024; Nielsen et al. 2024; Phillipson et al. 2024) and one report (Wingren, Linke & Tschernij 2024, see below).
2. Results in addition to the publications
This project's main result is the book project presented above. In addition, the project has also led to the establishment of new and the continued development of existing contacts and networks, and new research ideas (see below).
3. New research questions
This project is resulting in the development of a whole array of new research questions. As mentioned above, I even refer to these as presenting a new research agenda that proposes the exploration of alternative knowledge systems for sustainability transformations in environmental science and governance.
The new research theme will be addressed in new project applications and includes the following questions: What type of knowledge is required in existing EU fisheries policies and what is considered relevant by the practitioners handling this knowledge? What (other) types of knowledge are envisioned as relevant for finding sustainable solutions? What alternative cases of knowledge use can be found for addressing current sustainability challenges? What is their potential for finding new knowledge pathways for transformations to sustainability in fisheries governance? What criteria can be found that make knowledge more suitable for addressing existing sustainability challenges in fisheries governance? What implications arise from these criteria for new research policy and practice?
4. Dissemination and new collaborations
The project included two visiting research periods and two extended writing retreats. In January 2024 I visited the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at University La Laguna, Tenerife/Spain. From this stay emerged new collaborations with colleagues, the organisation of field trips and a half day workshop that included the extended research environment from the department, i.e. the research groups of Prof. Jose Pascual-Fernández and Prof. Raquel de la Cruz Modino as well as my Doctoral student Viktor Vesterberg, who participated online. The collaboration with Prof. Jose Pasqual also led to our invitation and his acceptance to serve as opponent for the Disputation of Viktor Vesterberg on March 7, 2025, at my home department. Under my second visiting researcher stay at the Arctic University of Tromsø in Norway I had the opportunity to pursue previously started collaborations with my colleagues Prof. Petter Holm and Dr. Kåre Nolde Nielsen. In addition, I established new contacts, primarily with Fern Wickson, who is Professor of Ocean Leadership at the department, which lead to interesting discussions and exchange of experiences regarding our education programs on marine social science. In addition to my research visits I conducted two stays at writing retreats, one at Jonsered’s Herregård near Gothenburg and one at the Swedish Institute of Athens’ guesthouse in Kavalla/Greece.
Furthermore, I extended existing contacts from the Centre for Maritime Research (MARE network) and through that organised a panel at the Political Ecology Network conference in Lund (10-12. June 2024) as well as a workshop thereafter in Gothenburg which served for preparing an EU application for an ITN Training Network (PhD school).
In this RJSAB project I am writing a book, preliminary entitled “Fishing for alternatives: knowledge for sustainability transformations in fisheries and environmental governance”. The book reveals key governance challenges related to the use of expertise for sustainable development and environmental decision-making through illustrations of existing science-policy-society interactions in fisheries governance. My overall objective is to find out what different types of knowledge are needed for transformations to sustainability in fisheries management – and what lessons can be drawn from these insights for environmental governance generally.
The chief hypothesis presented in the book is that the existing knowledge system informing fisheries management (and similarly other areas of environmental governance) is, because of its exclusive reliance on quantitative, science-based expertise from biology and economics, not sufficient for addressing the complex socio-ecological problems that interweave fisheries and coastal governance as well as other environmental domains.
The book addresses a fundamental, yet complex research question: Why does the existing knowledge-base of fisheries management, with profound expertise and experience, channelled and administered though elaborated institutional structures that organise the application of that expertise for sustainable extraction of fish resources not ensure a long-term sustainable use of this renewable ocean resource?
This question is addressed in two successive steps. First, three empirical chapters (3-5) interrogate what kind of environmental expertise is sought by the existing fisheries management approach and what kind of dilemmas and challenges arise for advisory science and its use in deliberation and decision-making. Secondly, chapter 6 and 7 embark on a search for alternative approaches by reviewing the existing fisheries research literature for different approaches to organise the application of knowledge for management and decision-making that may result in more sustainable governance systems in terms of social and environmental justice.
1. Project results, publications and conclusions
During the starting phase of writing the book I conducted substantial work to revise the originally planned structure, the main thrust and the outline of the book (chapters & contents). The original idea from the application was to write a synthesis of my own research over the past 15 years. While this idea has been kept, I found a new entry point to present the overarching narrative for this book project. This new perspective, which questions the adequacy of existing knowledge systems for sustainability transformations is expressed in the hypothesis and research question above and is intended to present a new research agenda. Beyond synthesising insights and drawing lessons on existing problems and challenges with expertise and legitimacy in fisheries governance (my previous research), I also propose a new research agenda that embarks on a search for alternative knowledge systems that are more suitable for achieving real transformations to sustainability in fisheries governance and beyond.
This setup informs the new structure of the book: from detailed descriptions and empirical analyses of the institutions and processes that apply knowledge for fisheries management (chapters 3-5), the remaining part of the book sets out to explore what different trajectories can be found, imagined or developed as alternative pathways to sustainability and asks which type of expertise and knowledge processes would be needed for achieving such transformations (chapters 6 & 7).
The introduction of the book with outlines for all chapters was presented at a workshop at the Nordic Environmental Social Science conference in June in in Åbo/Finland and the substantial comments which I received were used to revise the draft texts over the summer 2024. In the autumn I focused my schedule to get coherent writing time for the empirical chapters, partly conducted at the Swedish House in Kavalla (Greece). The central preliminary conclusions that I can hitherto draw from these empirical chapters are that fisheries management, due to its hierarchic, top-down and science-centred approach, exemplifies a basic tension between expertise and democracy as it involves the insertion of an expert-steered, technocratic decision-making process into an area that concerns the governance of the commons, which is ultimately affecting the wellbeing of (fishing) people, their communities and coastal populations. These tensions and associated challenges are explored in chapters 4 and 5 respectively, while synthesising lessons are drawn in chapter 6 and 7, which subsequently propose a new research agenda to search for, explore, and combine insights from alternative approaches that can, although marginalised, excluded or suppressed, be found in the existing literature.
The key focus of this new research agenda is to interrogate the nexus between the existing problem framing of fisheries, the management goals and objectives resulting from this framing and the knowledge that is sought and applied for this intersection.
Beside the book project, I conducted some minor work on additional publications that directly relate to the RJSAB book project. This regards three journal articles (work with revisions for Sundqvist & Linke 2024; Nielsen et al. 2024; Phillipson et al. 2024) and one report (Wingren, Linke & Tschernij 2024, see below).
2. Results in addition to the publications
This project's main result is the book project presented above. In addition, the project has also led to the establishment of new and the continued development of existing contacts and networks, and new research ideas (see below).
3. New research questions
This project is resulting in the development of a whole array of new research questions. As mentioned above, I even refer to these as presenting a new research agenda that proposes the exploration of alternative knowledge systems for sustainability transformations in environmental science and governance.
The new research theme will be addressed in new project applications and includes the following questions: What type of knowledge is required in existing EU fisheries policies and what is considered relevant by the practitioners handling this knowledge? What (other) types of knowledge are envisioned as relevant for finding sustainable solutions? What alternative cases of knowledge use can be found for addressing current sustainability challenges? What is their potential for finding new knowledge pathways for transformations to sustainability in fisheries governance? What criteria can be found that make knowledge more suitable for addressing existing sustainability challenges in fisheries governance? What implications arise from these criteria for new research policy and practice?
4. Dissemination and new collaborations
The project included two visiting research periods and two extended writing retreats. In January 2024 I visited the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at University La Laguna, Tenerife/Spain. From this stay emerged new collaborations with colleagues, the organisation of field trips and a half day workshop that included the extended research environment from the department, i.e. the research groups of Prof. Jose Pascual-Fernández and Prof. Raquel de la Cruz Modino as well as my Doctoral student Viktor Vesterberg, who participated online. The collaboration with Prof. Jose Pasqual also led to our invitation and his acceptance to serve as opponent for the Disputation of Viktor Vesterberg on March 7, 2025, at my home department. Under my second visiting researcher stay at the Arctic University of Tromsø in Norway I had the opportunity to pursue previously started collaborations with my colleagues Prof. Petter Holm and Dr. Kåre Nolde Nielsen. In addition, I established new contacts, primarily with Fern Wickson, who is Professor of Ocean Leadership at the department, which lead to interesting discussions and exchange of experiences regarding our education programs on marine social science. In addition to my research visits I conducted two stays at writing retreats, one at Jonsered’s Herregård near Gothenburg and one at the Swedish Institute of Athens’ guesthouse in Kavalla/Greece.
Furthermore, I extended existing contacts from the Centre for Maritime Research (MARE network) and through that organised a panel at the Political Ecology Network conference in Lund (10-12. June 2024) as well as a workshop thereafter in Gothenburg which served for preparing an EU application for an ITN Training Network (PhD school).