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The Sustainable Seafood Movement Is a Governance Concert, with the Audience Playing a Key Role

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  • Kate Barclay

    (School of International Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), P.O. Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia)

  • Alice Miller

    (BESTTuna Project, Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University (WUR), Hollandseweg 1, 6706KN Wageningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Private standards, including ecolabels, have been posed as a governance solution for the global fisheries crisis. The conventional logic is that ecolabels meet consumer demand for certified “sustainable” seafood, with “good” players rewarded with price premiums or market share and “bad” players punished by reduced sales. Empirically, however, in the markets where ecolabeling has taken hold, retailers and brands—rather than consumers—are demanding sustainable sourcing, to build and protect their reputation. The aim of this paper is to devise a more accurate logic for understanding the sustainable seafood movement, using a qualitative literature review and reflection on our previous research. We find that replacing the consumer-driven logic with a retailer/brand-driven logic does not go far enough in making research into the sustainable seafood movement more useful. Governance is a “concert” and cannot be adequately explained through individual actor groups. We propose a new logic going beyond consumer- or retailer/brand-driven models, and call on researchers to build on the partial pictures given by studies on prices and willingness-to-pay, investigating more fully the motivations of actors in the sustainable seafood movement, and considering audience beyond the direct consumption of the product in question.

Suggested Citation

  • Kate Barclay & Alice Miller, 2018. "The Sustainable Seafood Movement Is a Governance Concert, with the Audience Playing a Key Role," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:1:p:180-:d:126742
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Minako Iue & Mitsutaku Makino & Misuzu Asari, 2022. "Seafood Sustainability Supply Chain Trends and Challenges in Japan: Marine Stewardship Council Fisheries and Chain of Custody Certificates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-21, October.
    3. Wehner, Nicholas & Fabinyi, Michael, 2018. "Environmental fixes and historical trajectories of marine resource use in Southeast Asia," MarXiv bej53, Center for Open Science.
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    6. Wesley Malcorps & Richard W. Newton & Silvia Maiolo & Mahmoud Eltholth & Changbo Zhu & Wenbo Zhang & Saihong Li & Michael Tlusty & David C. Little, 2021. "Global Seafood Trade: Insights in Sustainability Messaging and Claims of the Major Producing and Consuming Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, October.

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