Networks or markets? The recruitement challenge in future fiskeries and marine industries. – Rekruttering og sysselsetting i fiskerflåten

The radical changes that happen in coastal communities and industries;the processes of structuration, mechanisation, and increased governance, which we call cyborgisation processes, seem to have had consequences for the employment systems in marine communities. However, very little is known about these changes. Both the marine industries, and particularly the fisheries, and the authorities assume that either the traditional employment systems or the market forces will secure recruitment to the marine sector in the future. The main question in this project is: How and through which processes are fishers and labour recruited today and what is the role of and relation between local networks, market mechanisms, and the communities in the contemporary employment systems in the marine sector? The question is addressed through a study deploying social capital theory, actor-network theory, and quantitative and qualitative methods in three partly overlapping work packages (WP): WP 1: Surveys, applied research report and presentations. WP 2 (2007-2010): PhD-project, Coastal communities and employment systems in change. WP 3 (2008-2009): Recruitment and employment in the fishing fleet. WP 1 is applied, WP 3 is applied with an element of basic research, both are focused mainly on fisheries, while WP 2 has a broader scope than fisheries, with some applied elements. This project will be the first comprehensive research in this field since the late 1970s and it will produce highly relevant knowledge about recruitment and employment issues in coastal communities and industries for both the industry itself and for the authorities. The project is accomplished in collaboration between Norwegian College of Fishery Science and the Centre for Rural Research. The project is designed in dialogue with the Norwegian Fishermen Association and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Fund, which also provides 20% of the funding of the projecject.