Small-scale fish buyers' trade networks reveal diverse actor types and differential adaptive capacities
Abstract
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. The importance of understanding how social-ecological interdependencies
deriving from global trade influence sustainability has been argued for decades. Even
if substantial progress has been made, a research gap remains regarding how the adaptability
of small-scale fish buyers, whose daily operations have implications for the livelihood
of more than 100 million people, are affected by networks of trade relationships.
Adaptability is here defined as fish buyers´ abilities to adapt using their relationships
with others. We elaborate how these capacities relate to the precise patterns in which
a fish buyer is entangled with other fish buyers, with the fishers, and with the targeted
fish species, by combining a multilevel social-ecological network model with empirical
data from a small-scale fishery in Mexico. Further, we also identify types of fish
buyers distinguishable by how they operate, and how they are embedded in the trading
network. Our results suggest that adaptability differs substantially amongst these
types, thus implying that fish buyers' abilities to respond to changes are unevenly
distributed. This study demonstrates the need for a more profound understanding of
the consequences of the different ways in which fish buyers operate commercially,
and how these operations are affected by patterns of social and social-ecological
interdependencies.
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Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20608Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.05.018Publication Info
González-Mon, B; Bodin, Ö; Crona, B; Nenadovic, M; & Basurto, X (2019). Small-scale fish buyers' trade networks reveal diverse actor types and differential
adaptive capacities. Ecological Economics, 164. pp. 106338-106338. 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.05.018. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20608.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Xavier Basurto
Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Associate Professor
I am interested in the fundamental question of how groups (human and non-human) can
find ways to self-organize, cooperate, and engage in successful collective action
for the benefit of the common good. To do this I strive to understand how the institutions
(formal and informal rules and norms) that govern social behavior, interplay with
biophysical variables to shape social-ecological systems. What kind of institutions
are better able to govern complex-adaptive systems? and how can societies (la

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