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Tragedy to the Commons and Outcomes of Blue Growth: Comparative Study on the Politicised Environment of Aquaculture
Journal
Social Exclusion and Policies of Inclusion: Issues and Perspectives Across the Globe
Date Issued
2022-01-01
Author(s)
Jeffrey Immanuel, J.
Narayanan, N. C.
Abstract
One of the key policy messages of the Blue Growth Initiative is to explore alternate sources of food security and decent work such as aquaculture through inclusive and participatory approach, but the artisanal fishers in India and around the globe have strongly resisted the initiative. In order to understand this resistance and the consequent social exclusion of fishers, we critically unravel systemic structural issues that differentiate capture fisheries from culture fisheries, which is just one of the several manifestations of the Blue Growth policy. We do so by identifying different forms of capital as proposed by Bourdieu and reframing commons as a form of social capital through our comparative empirical analysis of two contrasting case villages in the state of Tamil Nadu. We show that the currently dominating international discourses on the Blue Growth and ocean commons, though intended to be inclusive on paper are hegemonic and attempts to weaken the small-scale fisher fraternity by appropriating their source of power: social capital (commons) through ‘ocean grabbing’, thereby setting off a ‘Tragedy to the Commons’.We suggest, how the Blue Growth policy can be reimagined, to make it structurally inclusive for the artisanal fishers, rather than mere superficial claims on paper.