Séverine Bouard

Traditional Fishing Activity, Customary Exchanges and the Vision of Informality in New Caledonia

The original setting of New Caledonia implies the overlapping of different research fields. From anthropology, sociology, political sciences, and entrepreneurship the authors have co-written with a local writer from the fishing sector to discuss the notion of informality regarding the impact of the context on the transactions. The work first presents New Caledonian history in context with a focus on the ethnic and institutional characteristics impacting on fishing activity. Building on previous works that highlight the importance of informal exchanges regarding on tribe economy, we follow by presenting the different types of transactions (exchanges, customary works and sales) conducted by on-tribe fishers. Regarding the great importance of their meanings and the values they create and maintain this work humbly bring up the question toward productive informality and invite to further researches on the processes and outputs related to it.