Externe Publikationen

Navigating coastal dynamics: illegal institutional arrangements, gangs’ activities, and knowledge mobility in the Gulf of Guayaquil

in: Ocean and Society 2, article 8851

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/oas.8851
Open access

This study investigates how corruption and criminal gangs affect small‐scale fisheries, driving forced displacement and reshaping fishing knowledge through the process of epistemic mobility. The research focuses on the interactions between the fishing communities of Puerto Bolívar and Puerto Roma within the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador. By tracing the movement of fishers and their knowledge, the study reveals how the imitation and attempted learning of fishing techniques, such as the use of plastic tubes to detect fish, occur between communities. Displaced due to the illegal encroachment of semi‐industrial vessels (bolicheros) protected by criminal gangs, Puerto Bolívar’s fishers have been forced to migrate northward to fish near Puerto Roma, and then return to Puerto Bolívar. While they are fishing in the northern waters, Puerto Roma’s fishers observe their techniques and attempt to imitate them. Nonetheless, the transfer of this knowledge is imitative and incomplete, as it is observed from a distance rather than fully understood. The study highlights that, while the displacement caused by corruption and illegal activities brings fishers into new contexts, it is the fishers themselves who contribute to the mobility and transformation of knowledge. By focusing on epistemic mobility, this study highlights how knowledge is not always successfully transferred but is adapted, hybridized, or even resisted, offering new insights into the resilience and vulnerability of small‐scale fishers in the context of systemic corruption and ecological conflict.

Über die IDOS-Autorin

Hornidge, Anna-Katharina

Entwicklungs- und Wissenssoziologie

Weitere IDOS-Expert*innen zu diesem Thema

Büscher, Chris

Development studies / Political ecology 

Christ, Simone

Sozialanthropologie 

Dang, Vy

Politikwissenschaft 

Dippel, Beatrice

Komparatistik 

Dombrowsky, Ines

Ökonomin 

Flaig, Merlin

Sozialwissenschaft 

Gehrke, Charlotte

Sozialwissenschaften 

Hernandez, Ariel

Ökonomie 

Herrfahrdt-Pähle, Elke

Volkswirtin 

Kötter, Elizabeth Chepkemboi

 

Lynders, Eva-Maria

Politikwissenschaft 

Morare, Ditebogo Modiegi

Politikwissenschaften 

Reiber, Tatjana

Politikwissenschaft 

Reiners, Wulf

Politikwissenschaft 

Schwachula, Anna

Soziologie 

Schüpf, Dennis

Ökonomie 

Stamm, Andreas

Geograph 

Subramanian, Saravanan

Geographie 

Vogel, Johanna

Kulturwirtschaft 

Wagner, Niklas

Klima- und Wissenssoziologie