Coevolutionary decoupling in artisanal fisher communities: A temporal perspective from Chile

Abstract

The relationship between the exploitation and scarcity of fishery resources is a complex phenomenon that has been broadly examined by studies on fishing sustainability, the governance of the commons and ecology. This study furthers this line of inquiry using a systemic coevolutionary approach that enables the time perspective to be used to examine the negative effects on artisanal fishing. Through a qualitative methodology, document analysis and ethnographic approach, the research into the coevolution of artisanal fishing in Chile enables us to identify how the negative effects on the fishing communities are the outcome of the gradual increase in the decoupling of local socioecological systems which started in the mid-twentieth century and accelerated within the context of neoliberal capitalism. In this process, the value systems, knowledge, organisation, environment and technology change their ability to integrate with each other, leading to mismatches via successive multiple feedback incidents. From a temporal coupling-decoupling vantage point, a path of analysis opens up to understand the negative effects of the capitalist economic development in traditional fishing communities in the global South.