Can Investments in Social Capital Improve Well-Being in Fishing Communities? A Theoretical Perspective for Assessing the Policy Options

摘要

Over the last decade, advocates of the interdisciplinary concept of social capital have celebrated the fact that elementsudof local social structures--embodied in social norms, networks and organizations--can significantly affect well-being in fishingudcommunities. But does this concept bring anything to the study and practice of fisheries management that is not already known?udThis paper argues that value is added to the formation of fisheries policy by viewing elements of local social structures as a formudof capital. When norms, networks and organizations are analyzed, in a microeconomic context, as potentially productive assets,udthey can properly be valued alongside physical, human, and natural capital. The paper details how doing so can promise toudfurther increase the probability of sustainable use of many (but not all) local fisheries through specific investments in socialudcapital.