Transformations in small-scale fisheries: Charting and enacting desirable and just futures

• Autores: Ignacio Gianelli Maisonnave
• Directores de la Tesis: Micaela Trimble Nuñez (dir. tes.), Carlos Sebastian Villasante Larramendi (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ( España ) en 2025
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Derek Armitage (presid.), María Teresa Moreira Vilar (secret.), Jerneja Penca (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Marinas, Tecnología y Gestión por la Universidad de A Coruña; la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela; la Universidad de Vigo; Universidade de Aveiro(Portugal); Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro(Portugal) y Universidade do Minho (Portugal)
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: MINERVA
• Resumen

  • Small-scale fisheries (SSF) provide essential contributions to food security and livelihoods, yet they remain marginalized and face significant challenges in securing equitable and sustainable futures. This thesis aims to explore the concept of transformation in SSF and to stimulate deliberate actions toward fostering more just and resilient spaces for this subsector, with a focus on Uruguay. Through a transdisciplinary and multiscale approach, this work integrates global perspectives with local processes, engaging a diverse network of academic and non-academic collaborators to drive both theoretical insights and practical outcomes. The thesis follows a sequence structured around three interconnected phases: charting, envisioning, and enabling of transformations. Charting presents a systematic review of literature on transformations in SSF, analyzing key drivers, enablers, triggers, agents of change and resistance, and strategies that facilitate transformation. While SSF transformations are diverse, several key features consistently emergesuch as normativity, their dual nature as both processes and outcomes, their occurrence at multiple scales, and their interstitial and symbiotic pathways providing a foundation for imagining and fostering transformative futures for SSF. Envisioning therefore focuses on a transdisciplinary process in Uruguay, where key actors from innovative initiatives within the food system of SSF co-created desirable futures using an arts-based approach. This process not only generated new narratives for SSF but also established a transformative space for collective reflection, learning, and action, fostering optimism and readiness for future challenges. Enabling lastly introduces the novel concept of the seeds substrate, which characterizes the relationships, conditions, and actors necessary for scaling and coalescing innovative initiatives within SSF. It reveals how interconnected initiatives and supporting actors can support broader transformative processes. The join insights build a bridge between the concept of transformationa central idea in Sustainability Scienceand the often overlooked domain of small-scale fisheries. It demonstrates that transformation is not an abstract concept but a tangible and achievable process, rooted in collaboration, creativity, and context-specific actions. Additionally, this thesis produces useful and tangible outputs beyond the academic sphere, including a book-format catalog documenting innovative experiences in SSF in Uruguay and a short film that has gained recognition locally and internationally. In conclusion, the thesis offers valuable theoretical and practical contributions to understanding and applying the concept of SSF transformations. It underscores the critical role of researchers as agents of change and advances the creation of safe and just spaces for SSF in an era of uncertain futures. Overall, the thesis highlights the importance, role, and potential of SSF and emphasizes the need to address their challenges in a systemic and transformative manner.