SSHRCC Research Development Initiatives (RDI)
Program Proposal
Exploring and Reconciling Competing Systems
of Ecologically-Framed Knowledge:
Lessons from Maritime Canadian and North Atlantic
Fisheries
Lessons from Maritime Canadian and North Atlantic Fisheries
Statement of Purpose
and Goals
Fisheries science and fish harvesters have been characterised as reflecting contrasting and, in many respects, conflicting ways and systems of 'knowing'. For instance, during the recent controversies attending the character, conduct and public policy translation of fisheries science 'knowledge', fisher 'knowledge' of the marine environment and ecological dynamics has been posited as an alternative basis for understanding fisheries that has been excluded from serious consideration in the formation of fisheries management policy. This example of contending ways of knowing highlights the critical need to initiate an endeavor that will explore the core elements featured in different approaches to and claims of knowledge about fisheries and marine ecology. Additionally, the lessons that can be drawn from this and similar fisheries situations offer considerable potential to contribute constructively to the understanding of and reconciliation in circumstances where a variety of 'knowledge' systems collide and contend, especially with respect to ecological and environmental concerns such as water usage and forestry practices. These issues and dynamics also reside at the heart of local-level human experiences of and responses to processes of globalisation.
The character of the empirical settings and conflicts involved (e.g., fisheries) indicates that an interdisciplinary approach is best suited to addressing the questions at issue. The previous research and international collaborative networks of the principal and co-investigators, the international collaborators and partners position them to develop an interdisciplinary research initiative with leading-edge capacity to contribute to understandings of and approaches to conflicts that essentially embody contentions between different ways of knowing and understanding.
The Research Development Initiative (RDI) proposed herein articulates dialogue, enquiry and assessments, from the outset, between an interdisciplinary and international team of researchers and non-academic participants such as the Gulf Nova Scotia Bonafide Fishermen's Organisation, the Fundy Fixed Gear Association and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Science Branch, Gulf Region. This quality of the RDI operationally embodies the SSHRCC RDI programme goal of "…impact on the development and integration of research or on the role and place of the social sciences…in society; potential for effective transfer of the results to stakeholders within and, where appropriate, beyond the academic community" (Research Development Initiatives Program, p.2).
Additionally, the proposed RDI will immediately link with the UNESCO affiliated Management of Social Transformations Programme(MOST). This programme is an interdisciplinary and international collaborative undertaking concerned with understanding local-level adaptations to globalisation throughout the circumpolar and North Atlantic region (cf. appended description). This linkage and relationship will enrich the international and interdisciplinary collaborative dimensions, as well as provide a major venue wherein the RDI's outcomes will be communicated. This quality of the proposed RDI directly addresses SSHRCC's RDI program objective of "…developing new alliances, partnerships, and collaborations at the researcher, group, or institutional level, within or beyond the university, nationally or internationally" (Ibid., p. 2).
RDI
Goals
The research development initiative proposed here will focus on the following goals.
- Critical assessment of existing social science theoretical and conceptual understandings of contending 'knowledge systems', particularly as they pertain to fisheries and other natural resource settings, with a view to developing an integrative theoretical model.
- Critical assessment of the methodological qualities of research conducted to date with a view to developing models of methodological approaches 'best fitted' to exploring and understanding ways of knowing, especially in circumstances colored by conflict and contention.
- 'Ground truthing' and examining the theoretical and methodological approaches developed within a couple of actual settings with a view to determining and demonstrating strengths and weaknesses. The RDI's fisher organisation and DFO partners are enthused especially by this feature of the proposal, offering their organisational cooperation with respect to participating in the ground truthing exercise.
- Bridging the lessons drawn from this examination of and work in fisheries settings to broader arenas.
Notably, from the outset the proposed RDI will work in partnership with non-academic organisations such as fish harvester representative organisations and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (cf., partners and attached letters of support and intended participation).
RDI Work
Plan
The RDI's goals will be achieved through the following work plan.
- Establishing an internet web page for the RDI and a listserve for the participants in the RDI. The purpose of this as a first step is to network all core research team participants as well as to provide a mechanism for engaging additional participation by interested individuals and groups interested in both fisheries and non-fisheries natural resource settings. The intention is to develop all working materials interactively through the web site and listserve, as well as to provide an 'archive' from the outset for all materials developed and correspondence.
- Conducting a preliminary 'synthesis' working seminar involving the core research team and selected invitees to be held over two weeks during the late summer or early fall of 1998. The primary goals of this seminar will be development of critical assessments of the state of social scientific understandings and research methodologies; positing of theoretical models and methodological approaches best suited to exploring contending ways of knowing within fisheries settings; and selection and research design for a couple of controlled comparative studies. Invitees to and participants in this seminar will include researchers presently on the forefront of enquiry respecting ecological knowledge such as the team lead by Drs. Barbara Neiss and Larry Felt at Memorial University of Newfoundland and fisheries scientists such as Drs. Daniel Pauly, Carl Walters and Tony Pitcher at the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia.
- The theoretical, conceptual and methodological outcomes of the working seminar will be circulated and published through conventional and electronic media.
- 'Ground truthing and field testing' best suited theoretical and methodological approaches through two controlled comparative studies, employing to the extent possible identical research methods, which will be conducted between April-September 1999. This dimension of the proposed RDI is of particular interest to the non-academic partners. Our non-academic partners will be full participants in the design and conduct of the field tests. All data gathered will be posted on the RDI web site. However, preliminary analyses will be completed by the summer of 2000 so that results and conclusions can be presented to the final, formal working seminar.
- Organise and conduct the final working seminar over two weeks during the mid-summer of 2000. The purpose of this seminar will be to present and work through the outcomes of the ground truthing field examinations, as well as to develop theoretical and methodological position papers and other materials that will bridge the RDI's outcomes within broader arenas of interest and concern. Of special interest here will be achieving a developed sense of the best approaches both to engaging non-research community partners in an enquiry process and to framing the communication of outcomes from exercises such as this RDI in ways and means that are accessible and useful to the non-academic community.
Work Plan Schedule
- 1998-99: Set up RDI web-page; organise and conduct 'synthesis' working seminar during late summer 1998 at St. Francis Xavier University; prepare and distribute seminar outcomes; and, working with non-academic partners, design 'ground truthing' field studies.
- 1999-2000: Conduct 'ground truthing' field studies; continual mounting of all information respecting process and outcomes on the RDI web site; organise and conduct theme focus work groups, both electronically and in person, involving only the core research team.
- 2000-01: Assessment of outcomes from 'ground truthing' exercises; organise and conduct a final expert working seminar for the purposes of examining outcomes; and focus on various ways and means of disseminating results.
Dissemination of
Results
The core research team, particularly Davis, Jentoft and MacInnes, have a developed track of organising, conducting and producing outcomes from international and interdisciplinary working seminars of the sort built into this RDI proposal. For instance, Davis and Jentoft organised and delivered on all facets of a SSHRCC-supported seminar held in Tromso, Norway during June 1986. Arguably, this seminar has contributed substantially to facilitating the last decade's record of rich Canadian-Norwegian collaborative research and exchanges. More recently, Davis was the principal for a similar endeavor involving a working seminar of Japanese and Atlantic Canadian fisheries social researchers. Held in September 1995, this working seminar was supported by a grant from the Japan Foundation.
Additionally, the core research team, particularly Davis, Jentoft and MacInnes, have a developed track record of disseminating research findings within non-traditional fora such as broadcast and print media. In addition to the traditional scholarly venues of meetings and peer-adjudicated publication, the outcomes of the proposed RDI will be disseminated through its web site as well as through the RDI's various non-academic partnerships and meetings with industry, harvester organisations, community organisations and government agencies. It is anticipated that the outcomes will contribute to understandings of the parameters of environmentally/ecologically referenced 'knowledge systems'. As well, the RDI will clarify and provide direction respecting critical methodological and theoretical-conceptual issues residing at the heart of 'competing knowledge systems' conflicts and mediations. This quality of RDI outcomes, hopefully, will be especially useful to non-academic participants and real-time settings. Finally, the RDI's outcomes will demonstrate the necessity for and effectiveness of an interdisciplinary and international team approach to achieving leading edge analysis and impacting results.
The Core Research
Team
Principal Investigator: Dr. Anthony Davis, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, St. Francis Xavier University; Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Studies in Aquatic Resources, St. Francis Xavier University; and Professor II, University of Tromso, Tromso, Norway
Roles and Contributions: Davis will be responsible for the overall organisation and coordination of the project and its outcomes, including liaison with international collaborators and linkages. Additionally, Davis will participate in designing and completing associated research undertakings such as literature reviews, case-studies, controlled comparative studies, and dissemination of the initiative's results.
Co-Investigators
Dr. Daniel MacInnes, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, St. Francis Xavier University
Roles and Contributions: MacInnes' extensive research experience in and knowledge of the Eastern Nova Scotian and Highland and Islands Scotland regions will be critical to the assemblage of literatures, engagement of local expertise as well as the design and conduct of the linked case-studies. Additionally, MacInnes will assume organisation responsibilities in collaboration with Davis respecting the overall course and conduct of the initiative.
Dr. John Phyne, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, St. Francis Xavier University
Roles and Contributions: Phyne's intellectual and research interests respecting the sociology of science and the comparative study of the socio-economic dimensions of aquaculture development (Nova Scotia, Republic of Ireland, and Highland Scotland) will enable explicit inclusion of aquaculture focused study within the initiative's exploration of the character and relations between various systems of ecological knowledge. Phyne will be responsible for organising aquaculture-seated information and foci within the proposed initiative.
Dr. James Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Interdisciplinary Studies in Aquatic Resources, St. Francis Xavier University
Roles and Contributions: Williams brings his background in marine biology and applied research to the proposed RDI. He will be primarily responsible for fostering, within the RDI's undertakings, the place and participation of fisheries science, marine biology and fisheries scientists.
International
Collaborators
Dr. Nils Aarsaether, Professor, Institute of Local Planning and Community Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tromso; and Coordinator of MOST
Roles and Contributions: Aarsaether, a political scientist, is one of the principal coordinators of the MOST initiative (see appended description). Aarsaether's primary involvement will concern liaison between the MOST-linked research and activities and the undertakings and outcomes of the proposed initiative. This linkage will facilitate and broaden the international collaborative dimensions of the initiative as well as explicate dissemination and impacts of the proposed initiatives outcomes.
Dr. Alida Bundy, Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, St. John's Newfoundland
Roles and Contributions: Bundy is a fisheries scientist with expertise in leading-edge eco-system methodologies and analytical techniques. Her primary contribution will be in assuring the specifics of fisheries science methodologies, and analyses are clearly and reasonably explicated throughout the RDI's discourse.
Dr. Petter Holm, Lecturer, Institute of Fisheries, University of Tromso, Tromso, Norway
Roles and Contributions: Holm's intellectual and research experiences respecting the sociology of fisheries knowledge within Norwegian and Northern European settings will contribute fundamentally to the controlled comparative dimensions that will be a key feature of the proposed initiative. Additionally, Holm's involvement will continue to foster the linkages between his Norwegian-focused research on systems of fisheries ecological knowledge. This is especially fortuitous as Holm's is currently leading an extensive programme of research in Norway that is concerned with the proposed initiative's central issues and objectives.
Dr. Svein Jentoft, Professor, Institute of Local Planning and Community Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tromso,Tromso, Norway
Roles and Contributions: Jentoft brings to the proposed initiative an extensive international research experience that has focused on dimensions of local fisheries organisation, management and ecological knowledge. Jentoft's primary roles and contributions will concern enriching the international dimensions of the initiative as well as dissemination of results. He will also contribute to the design and conduct of controlled comparative studies.
Partners (see appended
letters)
Department of Fisheries and Oceans,
Gulf Region, Science Division (liaison - Dr. Michael
Chadwick, Head, Science).
Contribution and Roles: representation of fisheries
science in the initiative.
Fundy Fixed Gear Association and
the Marine Resources Centre (liaison - Mr. Arthur Bull,
Director).
Roles and contributions: representation of fish
harvester's ecological understandings of a particular
fisheries setting.
Gulf Nova Scotia Bonefide
Fishermen's Organisation (liaison - Mr. Reg. Grant,
President).
Roles and contributions: representation of
harvester's ecological understandings of a particular
fisheries setting.
Through the collaborative involvement of Dr. Nils Aarsaether, the proposed RDI will form participatory linkages with the Management of Social Transformations: Circumpolar Coping Processes Project (MOST). A copy of information describing MOST has been appended to the application. In brief, MOST engages a network of international interdisciplinary social scientists for the core purpose of conducting multinational comparative studies focused on the theme of 'coping locally and regionally with economic, technological and environmental transformations'. The linkage of the proposed RDI with the MOST initiative constitutes a glorious opportunity for the development of rich international and interdisciplinary collaborations.
The proposed RDI addresses all of the primary objectives outlined by SSHRCC in its announcement of the program and competition. This is evident in the mobilisation of an international collaborative and interdisciplinary initiative with the intention of synthesising and critically assessing existing knowledge and methodologies with a view to the explicit goal of developing, field testing through controlled comparative work, and disseminating new theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Additionally, the proposed RDI has been designed with a view to facilitating and incorporating, from the outset, the participation of industry, harvester and public sector partners. Finally, the proposed RDI will employ the internet and the development of a project web site as an essential medium for fostering frequent participation of all researchers, collaborators and partners. The RDI web site will also provide a public access archive for the outcomes and communication of the project's work.
Internet Page (1) Student Assistants (2) Travel a. Airfares (3) b. Ground (4) Accomodation (5) Subsistence (6) Telephone and Fax (7) Postage and Courier Office Supplies Printing and Copying (8) TOTAL
Notes
1. Approximate costs at St. Francis Xavier University of contracting the services of an information systems senior year student to design, mount and maintain a website.
2. 1 student assistants per year @ $4800 , including costs of the employer's contribution.
3. Approximate contribution towards the cost of airfare transportation for 6-8 international and 4-6 national colleagues in years 1 and 2. The calculations are made on the basis of 10 participants requiring support for airfares @ $750/person.
4. Required allowance for ground transport. The university rate is $79 per return trip to Antigonish from the Halifax International Airport for 10 external collaborators ($790), plus $1250 (5000 kms./$.25/km. (university rate) for automobile transportation to and around test sites. The second year's seminar costs are calculated in the same manner re: air transport and ground transport $79/trip x 10 participants.
5. Have estimated an allowance of $25 per day (St. FXU single occupancy residence rate) over 14 days for 10 seminar participants, plus an additional 14 days, at the university rate, in the 1st year for collaborator engagement in the initial phases of the ground truthing tests. The second year's seminar costs are calculated in the same manner, i.e., $25/day x 14 days x 10 persons
6. Have estimated an allowance of $35 per day (university rate) over 14 days for 10 participants, plus an additional 14 days, at the university rate, in the 1st year for a similar number of collaborators to engage in the initial phases of the ground truthing tests. The second year's seminar costs are calculated in the same manner, i.e., $35/day x 14 days x 10 persons.
7. Long distance charges only.
8. Costs for producing hard copy materials, particularly for circulation among seminar participants prior to meetings. This is especially necessary as a means to assure that collaborators, e.g., native and non-native marine harvesters, have access to the materials under discussion. The higher approximated costs in this category for the 2nd year reflect anticipated costs for hard copy dissemination of RDI results.