Values, images, and principles: What they represent and how they may improve fisheries governance

Natural resource governance is expected to respond effectively and timely to dynamic environmental conditions, also in a manner that reflects social and political complexity of the system that it aims to govern. Values, images and principles that resource users and governing actors hold about how the world works represent a fundamental part of that complexity. These elements have indefinite form and meaning, may be incommensurable, competing and incompatible, and they often go unnoticed in governance discourse. This paper examines how values, images and principles are represented in a fisheries setting, and explores their diversity and ubiquity as well as the potential differences in the way they are conceived by various stakeholders. These characteristics are shown to give rise to the difficulties in policy planning and implementation, and create implications to power relations and overall governability of a fisheries system. The paper posits that governance challenges could be lessened if stakeholders' values, images, and principles are made explicit, understood, and articulated into the policy and decision-making process. It concludes with suggestions about future research steps.

► A diverse set of values, images, and principles operate in fisheries.
► Differences in stakeholders values, images and principles induce social complexity.
► Explicit attention on these underlying elements can potentially enhance governance.
► Empirical research elucidating their linkage to policy initiatives is the next step.