Browsing by Author "Jentoft, Svein"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Assessing Poverty in Small Scale Fisheries in Lake Victoria, Kenya
    (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010) Onyango, Paul O.; Jentoft, Svein
    Poverty is a pervasive issue in small-scale fisheries. Not only does it affect a substantial population, it is also a complex problem that is difficult to define, explain and solve. Thus, poverty in small-scale fisheries constitutes what in the planning literature is sometimes identified as a ‘wicked problem’. This paper applies the interactive governance framework to identify the limits of, and conditions for, governability and how they affect poverty, using the Lake Victoria small-scale fisheries in Tanzania as an illustrative case. More specifically, the paper first uses the three systems model of the interactive governance framework, i.e., the system-tobe-governed, the governing system, and the governing interaction, to explore poverty as a ‘wicked problem’ involving challenges pertaining to governability. Secondly, the paper suggests ‘governance elements’ that are fundamental for addressing poverty through the first, second, and third orders of governance. The paper emphasizes the importance of social values as crucial entry points in addressing poverty in smallscale fisheries.
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    Climbing the Hill: Poverty Alleviation, Gender Relationships, and Women's Socia Entrepreneurship in Lake Victoria, Tanzania
    (2011) Onyango, Paul O.; Jentoft, Svein
    This paper tells the story of how a group of women in a Lake Victoria fishing community in Tanzania addressed the poverty status of their community through their agency and social entrepreneurship and, by doing so, also their subordination relative to men. Their efforts to improve their situation in the community landed them in men’s traditional space. In order to occupy that space without stirring antagonism, it was crucial that the women apply their practical, cultural, and relational skills in a way that did not jeopardize men’s cultural roles and sense of worth. The paper argues that women’s entrepreneurship is circumscribed by social relationships that do not work in their favour. Thus, to become change agents in an economic sense, they also need to be change agents in a social relational sense. The paper also illustrates how Aristotle’s concept of phronesis – practical wisdom or prudence – is useful for understanding what poverty alleviation and social entrepreneurship requires
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    Embedding Co-Management: Community-Based Fisheries Resource Management Regime in Lake Victoria, Tanzania
    (2007) Onyango, Paul O.; Jentoft, Svein
    This paper discusses fisheries management reforms through involving local level institutions (LLFI). It is based on studies which were undertaken on Tanzania’s Lake Victoria fishery where LLFIs were established through the formation of Local enforcement Units, later named Beach Management Units (BMU), between 1998 and 2002. The paper takes the view that the overfishing problems that confront Tanzania’s fisheries management authorities are best understood from a social science perspective. The argument is that most communities’ values and institutions are embedded in their societies. The same is however, not true for externally originated management tools and systems as is the case with BMUs. This paper shows that the BMUs established between 1998 and 2002, were not sufficiently grounded in their socio-cultural environment and this led them to be unsustainable and ineffective. The paper demonstrates that this mismatch by examining the different historical and social contexts in which livelihoods such as fishing emerged and was carried out. These social contexts generated social values that explain the individual behaviour of community members. It is such values that communities always strive to maintain in any activity including fishing. Thus, when confronted with situations that threaten these values, communities strategize or negotiate ways to cope. The coping strategies of two communities riparian to the lake are discussed. The paper therefore proposes a framework for making these units ‘fit’ local conditions in order to make them effective and sustainable so as to reform fisheries management.
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    Freedom and Poverty in the Fishery Commons
    (2010) Jentoft, Svein; Onyango, Paul O.; Islam, Mohammad M.
    Poverty was at the heart of the tragedy of the commons discourse from the very beginning. The idea was that commoners would inevitably end up deprived due to their own resource overuse. As Hardin saw it, if the initial problem was freedom of the commons, then limiting that freedom would logically reduce poverty. In this article, we argue that alleviating poverty among resource users calls for a broader concept of freedom than Hardin’s – one that is more in line with that of Amartya Sen’s “freedom as agency.” Based on case-studies of smallscale fisheries and poverty in Bangladesh and Tanzania, we claim that the root of the tragedy of the commons is the restriction of freedom rather than unlimited freedom and that it is arguable whether the people who have no other option than to continue fishing for their livelihood, even in over-exploited ecosystems, could be understood to be free.
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    Poverty in Lake Victorian Fisheries – Understanding Governability
    (Springer Link, 2013) Onyango, Paul O.; Jentoft, Svein
    Why is poverty such a challenging problem in small-scale fishing communities, despite noble efforts to eradicate it? This chapter argues that poverty requires a governability lens to be understood and effectively alleviated. More specifically, the chapter uses the interactive governance approach’s three systems model, i.e., the system-to-be-governed, the governing system and governing interactions, to discuss poverty as a “wicked problem” that involves challenges pertaining to governability. We explore the limits of, and conditions for, governability and how these affect poverty. Our point of view is shaped by the poverty conditions prevalent in the fishing communities of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.
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    Poverty in Small-Scale Fisheries: The Governance Perspective
    (2010) Jentoft, Svein; Onyango, Paul O.; Islam, Mohammad M.
    In fisheries, alleviating poverty sometimes requires strategies that are inherently in conflict. When aiming to develop a fishery as a means to reduce poverty, its common pool resource basis might be undermined, resulting in greater poverty. But poverty in fisheries is also linked to, or a part of deeper social issues and processes, for instance, the marginalization and exclusion of certain communities. Poverty also has many factors— income, health, literacy, gender, power, security, etc.—all of which make poverty alleviation a particularly “wicked problem” that would require a broad process of political, social and institutional reform. In other words, poverty alleviation is not only an issue of sustainable resource management but also one of societal governance. Drawing from research in small-scale fisheries communities in Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Bangladesh, this paper describes how fishing people cope with poverty. The paper discusses what the governance implications are for alleviating poverty at individual, household and community levels, and argue that both the definition of poverty and poverty alleviation in small-scale fisheries must be rooted in real life experiences.