The Ghosts of Fisheries Management

The scientific analysis and management of fisheries has been dominated by three institutional orthodoxies: state regulation, market exchange and community-based management. This paper argues that these static, substantive, metaphors obscure a consideration of the dynamic temporal interplay between stakeholders and their environment. To address this vacuity the paper outlines a process-sociological approach and applies it to the historical development of fisheries management in the Tam Giang Lagoon, in Central Vietnam. The analysis shows that the interplay between different groups of fishers, the Vietnamese state, and the lagoon environment, overtime, structures future struggles. As such, this interplay needs to be understood as a causal force of its own in the development of fisheries management. Endorsement of the analysis raises important questions concerning the potential of policy and planning to control fisheries.