Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

For many years, the ocean has been neglected as an environmental issue. The opportunities for seafood are plenty, both as sustainable diets and climate smart food production compared to land-based production. The challenges of seafood productions differ depending on where the production takes place. In the past few years, Sweden has gained interest in increasing the direct consumption of Baltic herring. At the same time there has been a debate in the Swedish media, of the dire conditions of the fish stock. This study examines the arguments and proposed solutions from different stakeholders on how to manage the resource. Additionally, connecting local discourse to global meta-discourses of environmental governance helps explain stakeholder perspectives on Baltic herring management.

Discourse analysis is a useful tool as it allows a critical analysis of the power relationships between dominant narratives and conflicting knowledge claims. In this thesis, I use a discourse analytic framework to critically analyse the debate that has emerged around the Baltic herring utilization. To further deepen the analysis, I applied the three global meta discourses of environmental governance that Bäckstrand (2006) identified: ecological modernisation, green governmentality and civic environmentalism. The herring debate provides multiple conflicting discourses that are representing a microcosm of the global environmental discourses. The focus in the thesis lies on the discourses of governance surrounding the new food security initiative, from the Swedish government, as well as the narratives that are employed by the stakeholders when discussing herring as food security.

This thesis highlights the importance of acknowledging the power-knowledge relationship between different truths, and that different views of nature will lead to different solutions on how a resource is managed. The result of this thesis shows that the three meta discourses of environmental resource governance help explain why certain actors propose and argue for certain solutions. In addition, it is shown that natural resource governance solutions and benefits need to be critically analysed, and the ecological trade-offs need to be further investigated, before the human and social benefits can become a reality. It is argued that the neoliberal focus that is shaping how the herring is discussed and managed is marginalizing other knowledge, such as the concerns of small-scale producers and concerns about environmental degradation. The neoliberal focus leads to a belief that ecological consideration and exploitation of the Baltic herring can create a win-win situation for everyone involved. To minimize the marginalisation of knowledges and perspectives, this thesis advocates more attention to other solutions than those based on the market and economic profit, where nature values are disregarded.