The influence of neoliberalization on the success and failure of fishing cooperatives in contemporary small-scale fishing communities: A case study from Yucatán, Mexico

- Neoliberalization of fishery policies has reduced support for fishing cooperatives.
- Increased competition with the private sector creates challenges for cooperatives.
- The theory of club goods aids in understanding cooperative success and failure.
- A more clearly defined vision of an enabling environment is needed.

This paper examines the effects of neoliberalization on the opportunities and constraints that fishing cooperatives face in Yucatán, Mexico. Cooperatives have the potential to enhance small-scale fishing livelihoods and participate in sustainable resource governance. However, promoting cooperatives' success entails developing a realistic understanding of the political and economic contexts in which they operate. Drawing on interview and census data, the analysis employs the theory of club goods to examine how the neoliberalization of Mexican fisheries policies in the 1980s and 1990s has affected cooperatives' ability to provide members with collective benefits, and thus the success and failure of fishing cooperatives in the region. In general, neoliberalization has reduced support to fishing cooperatives and generated greater challenges for their success in Yucatán. The results of this study are likely relevant to many other small-scale fisheries in the South that have undergone similar processes of neoliberalization.