Energy and Equity in World Fisheries
* Article: Energy and Equity in World Fisheries. By Dean Bavington and Sajay Samuel. The International Journal of Illich Studies, Vol. 2 No. 1 (2011)
URL = https://journals.psu.edu/illichstudies/article/view/59278
Summary
"In his essay entitled, Energy and Equity, medieval historian and social critic Ivan Illich observed that the first step toward addressing the energy crisis is to recognize that there are thresholds "beyond which technical processes begin to dictate social relations. Calories are both biologically and socially healthy only as long as they stay within the narrow range that separates enough from too much."1 In order to uncover what "enough" might mean in the post-collapse cod fisheries of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the many other collapsed fisheries around the world, we focus on debates, since the 1850's, on the appropriateness of various fishing methods. We argue that the introduction of the cod jigger in the 19th century marks a transgression of natural thresholds beyond which technical imperatives began to dictate social relations, both among people and between codfish and people."