Operationalizing participatory governance in small-scale fisheries: Researcher-practitioner reflections from the Lakshadweep Islands, India

In this paper, drawing from our dual positionality as researchers and practitioners, we discuss the insights and learnings from our decade-long engagement with fisheries in the Lakshadweep Islands, India. Using a case study of Lakshadweep’s live-bait pole and line tuna fishery, we describe how dominant developmental thinking manifests at local scales and trickles down to highly remote regions and induces vulnerability in small-scale fisheries. We also discuss our attempts to address unsustainable transitions in this fishery through interventions aimed at instituting participatory governance regimes. Reflecting on our work in this space, we highlight the setbacks and challenges of operationalizing such frameworks on the ground, the important processual lessons that have emerged from our engagement with a fishery in constant flux, and their implications for the theory and practice of participatory governance. We also underscore the need for theorists and practitioners to work more closely and learn from each other’s experiences to develop effective knowledge-practice frameworks for small-scale fisheries.