The Paradoxes of Transparency: Science and the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management in Europe (Amsterdam University Press - MARE Publication Series)

304 Pages·2010·1.9 MB·English

by  Douglas Clyde Wilson

5 MARE PUblICA tIon SERIES 5
Douglas Clyde Wilson
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is the central scientific D
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network within the massive set of bureaucracies that is responsible for Europe’s Common g
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Fisheries Policy (CFP). While spending the past 25 years failing to sustain Europe’s fish a
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stocks, this management system also became adept at making the lives of its scientists l
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miserable. Now it is being confronted by the complex challenge of an ecosystem-based e

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approach to fisheries management. If this combination of a multi-national bureaucracy,
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hard politics, and scientific uncertainty has made it impossible to maintain many o
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individual fish stocks, how are decisions going to be made that consider everything from
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sea birds to climate change? The old political saw that “if you can’t solve a problem,
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make it bigger” has never been put to a test like this! e

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Yet ICES has begun to rise in an impressive way to the scientific challenge of providing
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advice for an ecosystem approach within the world’s most cumbersome fisheries r
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management system. This book lays out the results of extensive sociological research on
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ICES and the decision making systems into which it feeds. ICES is finding ways to provide
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effective advice in the many situations where scientific advice is needed but a clear, x
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simple answer is out of reach. In spite of the difficulties, scientists are beginning to help
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the various parties concerned with management to deal with facts about nature in ways
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that are more useful and transparent.
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Doug Wilson is a Senior Researcher and Research Director at Innovative Fisheries r The Paradoxes of
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Management – An Aalborg University Research Centre.
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A clear analysis of an extremely complex domain—a great achievement, beautifully written. 5
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The author leads the reader along with clear, well reasoned arguments, documenting, and
y Science and the Ecosystem
explaining everything carefully along the way. ISBN 978 90 8964 060 4
James McGoodwin, Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado
Approach to Fisheries Management
This is a very good book. It is original, based on a massive amount of self-generated primary
data, embedded in relevant theoretical and methodological debates, and superbly written. A
in Europe
work of real scholarship.
tim Gray, Professor at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of newcastle
www.aup.nl
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aup_mare5_paradoxes.indd 1 26-06-2009 12:45:03
TheParadoxesofTransparency
MARE PUBLICATION SERIES
MAREisaninterdisciplinarysocial-scienceinstitute studyingtheuseand
managementofmarineresources.Itwasestablishedin2000bytheUni-
versityofAmsterdamandWageningenUniversityintheNetherlands.
MARE’s mandate is to generate innovative, policy-relevant research on
marine and coastal issues that is applicable to both North and South. Its
programmeisguidedbyfourcorethemes:fisheriesgovernance,maritime
workworlds,integratedcoastalzonemanagement (ICZM),andmaritime
risk.
In addition to the publication series, MARE organises conferences and
workshops and publishes a social-science journal called Maritime Studies
(MAST).VisittheMAREwebsiteathttp://www.marecentre.nl.
series editors
SveinJentoft,UniversityofTromsø,Norway
MaartenBavinck,UniversityofAmsterdam,theNetherlands
previously published
LeontineE.Visser(ed.),ChallengingCoasts.TransdisciplinaryExcursionsinto
IntegratedCoastalZoneDevelopment,2004(isbn9789053566824)
Jeremy Boissevain and Tom Selwyn (eds.), Contesting the Foreshore. Tour-
ism,Society,andPoliticsontheCoast,2004(isbn9789053566947)
JanKooiman, Maarten Bavinck, SveinJentoft,RogerPullin (eds.),Fishfor
Life.InteractiveGovernanceforFisheries,2005(isbn9789053566862)
Rob van Ginkel, Braving Troubled Waters. Sea Change in a Dutch Fishing
Community,2009(isbn9789089640871)
The Paradoxes of
Transparency
Science and the Ecosystem Approach
to Fisheries Management in Europe
Douglas Clyde Wilson
MARE Publication Series No. 5
Amsterdam University Press
Coverillustration:AlyneDelaneyandDouglasClydeWilson
Coverdesign:Neon,designandcommunications,SabineMannel,Amsterdam
Lay-out:japes,Amsterdam
isbn 9789089640604
e-isbn 9789048508136
nur 741
©DougWilson/AmsterdamUniversityPress,Amsterdam2009
Allrightsreserved.Withoutlimitingtherightsundercopyrightreservedabove,no
partofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,
ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans(electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recordingorotherwise)withoutthewrittenpermissionofboththecopyrightown-
erandtheauthorofthebook.
SERIES FOREWORD
As editors of the MARE Publication Series, we are proud to present yet
another major work on people and the sea. The topic of Doug Wilson’s
importantandtimelybookistheroleofnaturalscientistsinfisheriesman-
agement and environmental governance. Its focus is on the institutions
that provide the scientific basis for decision-making with regard to Euro-
peanfisheriespolicy.AprominentorganisationinthiscontextistheInter-
national Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which involves
twentymemberstatesandservesasthehubofanetworkofapproximately
1600scientists.
The marine environment is difficult to observe so the scientific uncer-
taintyisveryhigh. Hencethecraftingofscientificadviceforanecosystem
approach to fisheriesmanagementis acomplexchallenge. How doscien-
tists communicate uncertainty among themselves and with the outside
world? And how well does science mix with advice? Wilson lucidly dis-
cussestheseandotherimportantquestions.
Drawingon “communicative systemstheory” and employinga wide ar-
rayofdatacollectionmethods,Wilsonprovidesdeepinsightsintothechal-
lenges and dilemmasinvolved inprovidingscientificadvice to a demand-
ing political process. Can science really deliver what stakeholders expect
andpolicymakersareaskingfor,i.e.rapidanswerswithminimumuncer-
tainty to complex issues, without compromising what science is meant to
be?
Theseareallpertinentquestionsforfisheriesmanagementbuttheyalso
havemoregeneralrelevance.Indeed,fisheriesmaywellprovideatestcase
for our capacity to deal with a range of environmental issues, in which
science is called upon to provide the knowledge base necessary for effec-
tiveandrationalcollectiveaction.Thus,thisbookisalsoacontributionto
the Scienceand Technology Studies that are now enjoyingwidespread in-
terestwithinacademiccirclesandbeyond.
Finally this book is valuable in helping to cross the divide between nat-
uralandsocialsciences.Itdemonstrateshowsociologyofscienceperspec-
tives and methods can help us understand the contribution of natural
sciences,andtheirrepresentatives,toresolvingcomplexsocietalissues.
SveinJentoft(NorwegianCollegeofFisheryScience,UniversityofTromsø,
Norway
e-mail:[email protected]
MaartenBavinck(UniversityofAmsterdam,theNetherlands)
e-mail: [email protected]

ToProf.JoeFrancis
Many wonderfulpeoplecontributedto myformaleducation,but20years
istimeenoughtoknowwhichlessonsprovedthemostuseful.Othersdid
more to help me learn what to think about, but no one did more to help
melearnhowtothink.

Table of contents
Abbreviations 13
Preface 15
Acknowledgements 17
1 Introduction 19
1.1 Sensingtheneedforchange 19
1.2 Doessciencematterinpolitics? 25
1.3 Thecase:TheInternationalCouncilfortheExplorationof
theSea 29
1.4 Researchmethods 31
1.5 Planofthebook 32
2 Somegeneraltheoreticalguidesforunderstandingtheroleof
scienceinsociety 35
2.1 Threechallengesinscienceandsociety 35
2.1.1 Scienceandculture:Pressurestoinflatethescience
boundary 35
2.1.2 Clashingculturesandnotionsofevidence 38
2.1.3 Uncertainty 39
2.2 Threeperspectivesonscienceanddecision-makingprocesses 43
2.2.1 ModeTwoscience 43
2.2.2 Epistemiccommunities 46
2.2.3 Post-normalscience:Newformsofscientificpractice 48
3 Developingscientificadviceforpolicy 53
3.1 Saliency,credibilityandlegitimacy 53
3.1.1 Whatissaliency? 55
3.1.2 Whatiscredibility? 55
3.1.3 Whatislegitimacy? 56
3.1.4 Saliency,legitimacyandresearchonriskperception 66
3.2 Boundaryorganisationsandobjects 69
3.3 Theparadoxesoftransparency 79
3.3.1 Theparadoxofprecisionandexpertise 80
3.3.2 Theparadoxofquantificationandreification 81
3.3.3 Theparadoxofsurveillance 82
3.3.4 Theparadoxofscale 83
3.4 Summaryofthetheoreticaldiscussion 87
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