Scales of knowledge: North Sea fisheries governance, the local fisherman & the European scientist

Abstract

Recent European Union fisheries governance reforms have included the development of new regional fora designed to enable stakeholders and scientists to deliberate together about the nature of the fisheries crisis and its possible solutions. In this devolved context, fishing industry groups frequently argue, deploying local knowledge of the fishing grounds, that stocks are in better shape than many authorities estimate using the tools of universal science. Under EU fisheries governance reform, policymakers and stakeholders are forced to arbitrate between these different knowledge claims in new ways and in new, rescaled spaces. This adjudication between universal, expert knowledges and the locally-framed 'insurgent knowledge' of fishermen is a power-laden exercise. The rescaling of participatory processes appears to have had an effect upon the way, and at which scale, stakeholders frame their knowledge claims and how, through this reframing of knowledge, certain stakeholders attempt to lever greater influence in fisheries policymaking.