This book illustrates and explains the consequences of neoliberal reform on rural economies. Based on an ethnographic case study of coastal fisheries in Iceland, it poses the following questions: How are rural fishers navigating liberal capitalism? And how are new markets, property-rights and digital technologies transforming rural economies? By drawing on an extensive body of literature on economic sociology and science and technology studies, the book offers a novel understanding of the role of market-based reform for rural development.

Autorentext

Alexander Dobeson is a researcher at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, Sweden, and member of the Uppsala Lab of Economic Sociology. His research interests include economic sociology and science and technology studies with particular emphasis on the intersection of markets, property rights, technology and culture in contemporary capitalism.

Inhalt
Chapter 1:  presents the overall theme of the book by introducing Bjartur, an independent coastalfisherman to the reader. By following Bjartur throughout his career, the reader is introduced to the topicsof market-based resource management and the transformation of the Icelandic fishing industry. The introductionends with an overview of the chapters.Chapter 2: Fishing in Rural Capitalism shows how modern market-based resource management has transformedrural economies. With regard to the existing literature, the chapter examines the general sociologicalinsights on markets and neoliberal reform and closes with identifying some explanatory blind spotswith regard to our understanding of markets in rural economies.Chapter 3: The Transformation of Rural Independence investigates how markets and property rights havetransformed daily economic coping in the coastal fisheries. It reconstructs the metamorphosis of the ruralcommunity-bound coastal fisher to an independent entrepreneur and risk-taking investor.Chapter 4: The Phenomenology of Fishing takes the reader on a day's adventure aboard a coastal fishingvessel and provides first-hand experience of the practice of fishing itself. The chapter introduces the conceptof 'skilful coping' and puts forward a relational understanding of economic practice and technology.Chapter 5: The Paradox of Science and Technology investigates the role of science and technology inmodern market-based resource management. The movement of fish stocks can be at odds with scientificstock predictions, pushing fisherman to innovate coping strategies both ashore and at sea, leading to anever-ending cycle of investments and socio-technical problem solving.Chapter 6: Harvesting Quality investigates the nature of economic value in the contemporary fisheries.The chapter investigates the shift towards 'quality' in the small boat fisheries. In the context of increasingeconomisation, the chapter points at the changing socio-technical practices that allows fishermen andproducers to collectively revalue their catch towards a high margin niche market.Chapter 7: Fishing in Scopic Markets shows how digital information technologies, in particular vesseltracking transponders have given rise for a new 'panoptic' quality valuation regime, in which buyers engagein remote real-time observations of fishing activities. As a consequence, fisherman discipline theirpractice according to their buyer's expectations.Chapter 8: A New Culture of Liberal Rural Capitalism concludes the book and asks to what extent Bjartur,the cultural figure of the independent coastal fisher has managed to defend his independence or if heis doomed to fail. Accordingly, the major contribution of the book is the diagnosis of a cultural shift fromthe community based solidarity of rural capitalism to a more fragmented and individualised market-basedsolidarity of liberal rural capitalism. The chapter closes by pointing at the similarity between the fishingindustry and similar transformations in other rural industries such as farming and agriculture and raisessome open questions for future research, thereby broadening the scope of the analysis of the book.An Appendix will give the unfamiliar reader the chance to get acquainted with the traditional capturemethods used in the Icelandic coastal fisheries, which will play an important role in the struggle for ruralindependence.