Filippa Säwe

From Moral to Markets: The Rhetoric of Responsibility and Resource Management in European Union Fisheries Policy

Ecological, economic, and social sustainability has been prioritized by the European Union in its proposal for a reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), but it is recognized that there is a lack of knowledge concerning the objectives of these three aspects. Addressing the issue of how these objectives are given meaning as policy is being articulated, two Swedish seminars where fisheries’ stakeholders discuss the proposal for a reformed CFP are analyzed. The analysis shows how fish become defined as a specific kind of resource and how their status as a resource is framed as a moral issue. Once morally charged the resource is subjected to valorization through economic modeling. As a result, the potential for sustainability in fisheries becomes conditional upon the creation of new markets.

The challenge of internal stakeholder support for co-creational branding strategy

This article focuses on co-creation as a strategy and the challenge of applying theories of co-creation in practice. Place branding and a co-creative strategy based on art is used as an example of a special type of public relations concerned with building connections between stakeholders and a specific place. This is investigated through an analysis of how key internal stakeholders in a municipality understand the co-creative strategy for branding urban renewal, looking at their understanding, alignment and support for the strategy. An organizational ethnographic approach is used and the analysis is based on interviews with 16 administrative municipal managers from five different departments. Four different rationales are identified among managers. The study highlights how these profound rationales among internal stakeholders become a challenge in branding. In theories of co-creation, absolute consensus between stakeholders is assumed. In complex organizations, such as municipality, a more realistic goal is to establish compatible zones of meaning among internal stakeholders. It is concluded that public relations practitioners and researchers must cope with this reality when they approach public relations as co-creation.

The role of frames in a co-creation process

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the conditions for co-creation in a non-commercial context. The particular aim is to show how a co-creative activity is framed for the participants and the consequences of the frames for the values that are co-created in the process. Design/methodology/approach – Goffman’s frame analysis is applied to investigate how co-creation is used as a marketing strategy where an art event is used as an engagement platform to involve citizens in creating visions for an urban renewal area. It is a qualitative study based on observations. Findings – The taken-for-granted ideas of the active and creative consumer along with the focus in marketing research on the positive values achieved in a co-creative process are problematic in a public context. An unreflexive use of a co-creative strategy in a non-commercial setting and using art as an engagement platform, in combination with insufficient communication about the new framings, result in no-creation of value or even co-destruction ...

Addressing social sustainability for small-scale fisheries in Sweden: Institutional barriers for implementing the small-scale fisheries guidelines.

Swedish coastal fisheries are not sustainable in terms of the status of their main fish stocks, their economic profitability, and as source of regular employment. Social sustainability commitments in fisheries governance advocated by the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) have been so far mostly neglected. In this chapter, we bring attention to two institutional settings at different governance levels relevant for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines in the Swedish context. First, we look at the introduction of social goals under the perspective of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Second, we consider national tensions between forces advocating or opposing a further application of market-based economic instruments, often portrayed as an effective cure for all ills, in fisheries governance. Taking into account the logic on which the SSF Guidelines rest, we evaluate in both cases current processes for stakeholder participation in the formulation of fishing policies and strategies in Sweden. We conclude that the inclusion of a social dimension and stakeholder involvement at the EU level face procedural and institutional limitations that prevent the small-scale fisheries sector from exploiting opportunities for change. Further challenges to the implementation of the SSF Guidelines arise when central national authorities’ interpretation of societal benefits opposes other interpretations, and consequently economic calculations take precedence over a participatory process-based, knowledge-accumulating approach to resource management. The SSF Guidelines, therefore, provide important material and intellectual resources to make the most of new chances that can lead to an increased likelihood of change in the direction of sustainable coastal fisheries in Sweden.

A Minor Matter of Great Concern: The Different Sustainability Logics of ‘Societal Benefits’ and ‘Socio-economic Profit’

Sustainability science research is characterized by its high transdisciplinary ambitions. However, despite claims to urgent social change, important sustainability principles—including social complexity issues such as learning and knowledge sharing among stakeholders—are not fully contextualized and understood within the general framework of sustainability science research. To explore possible synergies between sustainability science research and social analysis, this chapter uses a qualitative method to account for the theoretical and practical implementation of a transdisciplinary research process. Through one example of a change in Swedish natural resource management policy, the paper demonstrates how a top–down and bottom–up conflict in natural resource management was dealt with by the creation of an innovative environmental governance constellation. This was done by the mobilization of the theoretical concept of ‘boundary objects’ to develop and maintain coherence over time between stakeholders and social worlds sharing a common sustainability interest but with conflicting stakes. It is concluded that ‘boundary objects’—here, a new communication platform—can facilitate cooperation between stakeholders regarding the complexities of social–ecological systems governance and policy.