Description

This monograph was the result of two years field work in a local fishing network in Kilmore Quay, a small port in south-east Ireland. It was published by the Marine Institute of Ireland (2000).The final part of the study about womens' roles and new spans of fishing network control triggered from the failure of artisan disciplines (pp 71-95) remains pertinent. There was little if no sociological inquiry into how family fishing evolved into more commercial forms of fishing organisations in Ireland. Driven by new financial, technological and agency profiles there is a constant shift from the deviant to the legitimate and back again depending, quite literally, on which way the wind was blowing. Fishing is a hunting expedition and this fact imposes unwritten rules that operate inside crews as well as local fleets.
The late maritime historian John de Courcy Ireland described this study as opening 'hard frozen gates' about daily life on Irish fishing boats and the families that depend on them.
I have one regret: I didn't apply aspects of Michel Callon's Actor-Network Theory to combine boats-local fishing actors-officials to show how difficult change comes to the surface; i.e. how problems are negiotiated both informally and formally across institutional ties.