From typhoons to traders : the role of patronage under changing market and climate conditions

• The majority of the world's fishers, fishworkers and their dependents live in areas, like the coastal tropics, that are highly exposed to human-induced climate change. Such change can mean natural disasters impact coastal populations more acutely and frequently, also leading to increasing aid inventions. How these external disturbances affect local fisheries, and smallscale producers more broadly, is in part determined by the internal dynamics of the social-ecological system. Economic vulnerability often characterizes communities in these settings and influences the means with which they navigate changes. Providing much needed finance for low-income households in place of formal options is the patron-client system. This relationship represents an informal institution central to the organization of market interactions and pervasive in rural economies worldwide, particularly tropical small-scale fisheries. There is mounting evidence to suggest that the ability of the patron-client system to buffer income fluctuations has significant trade-offs with longer term fishery pathways when coupled with the major disturbances SSF face today, in particular global markets and climate change. In this paper we use a case study approach and trace the historical development of the fishery system in Iloilo Province (Philippines) in relation to a major natural disaster – the super-typhoon Haiyan that hit in 2013 (known locally as Yolanda), and the subsequent aid intervention that followed. We assess how these disturbances were filtered by the patron-client system and highlight resulting tensions with longer term system dynamics. We reflect on this case using the concept of governability and discuss what patronage means for challenges and opportunities in fishery governance.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Patron-clients

Small-scale fisheries

Natural disasters

Global markets

Adaptability

Vulnerability

Resilience

Sustainability Science

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