Pelagic Imperialism in the 21st Century? A Geopolitical Economy of China's Distant Water Fishing Industry
Journal of Agrarian Change,
Journal Year:
2025,
Volume and Issue:
unknown
Published: March 25, 2025
ABSTRACT
China
is
the
home
of
world's
largest
distant
water
fishing
(DWF)
fleet.
Narratives
its
expansion
portray
as
a
voracious
consumer
ocean
resources,
serial
abuser
labour
and
aggressively
expanding
into
developing
country
waters
in
an
‘extractivist’
drive
that
destroys
small
scale
fishers'
livelihoods.
Yet,
what
does
taking
historical
relational
view
tell
us
about
China's
activities
vis‐à‐vis
other
DWF
nations?
Is
relationship
with
coastal
states
example
‘neocolonialism’
or,
Chinese
party‐state
insists,
‘mutual
benefit’?
And
should
one
read
fleet
tool
‘grand
strategy’
directed
from
Beijing
or
rational
profit‐seeking
individual
firms,
opportunistically
driven
new
frontiers
by
exhaustion
domestic
resources?
This
article
seeks
to
navigate
these
binaries
argue
most
recent
long
history
pelagic
imperialism
advanced
capitalist
interests,
where
fish
are
raw
material
wider
generative
industrial
strategy
activity
geopolitics.
It
argued
best
understood
relatively
coherent
cluster
capitals‐in‐competition,
set
mosaic
variegated
state‐capital
relations,
tension
at
different
scales.
The
also
offers
suggestions
for
future
research
on
industries.
Language: Английский
Labour regimes in industrial tuna fisheries: exploitation, ecology and global production networks
Journal of Economic Geography,
Journal Year:
2025,
Volume and Issue:
unknown
Published: April 3, 2025
Abstract
Labour
exploitation
in
marine
fishing
industries
has
received
considerable
negative
publicity.
Yet,
is
there
something
specific
about
that
makes
it
highly
exploitative?
We
compare
work
on
purse-seiners
catching
tuna
for
canning
with
longliners
sashimi.
explain
difference
through
a
comparative
analysis
along
three
axes:
(1)
population
dynamics,
technologies
and
resource
access;
(2)
industrial
organization
governance
of
global
production
networks;
their
relationships
(3)
workplace
labour
regimes
vessels.
The
article
contributes
to
regime
by
demonstrating
the
relative
material
significance
ecology
shaping
regimes.
Language: Английский