Discussants: Adrienne Mannov, Aarhus University and Finn Stepputat, Danish Institute for International Studies

Thesis Abstract

Port de Pêche – investigating local fishery governance in Djibouti

In the last decade, scholarly attention towards the Horn of Africa region has started to take a maritime turn. Since 2008 more than 200 articles have considered the region’s sea with a particular interest in maritime security questions and the ordering of maritime spaces. Yet, such considerations have mostly focused on state actors and international entities and engaged with the sea from a perspective that emphasizes a reading of the sea that focuses on commercial ports or potential maritime security threats.  

Under the working title “Port de Pêche – investigating local fishery governance in Djibouti” this PhD project provides a local perspective of the sea as a resource and its resource regime(s). From 10 months of fieldwork in the main fish hub of Djibouti, Port de Pêche, this PhD project investigates the local institutions and patron-client relationships that enable and constrain local fishermen as they catch and sell fish, move between land and sea, and cross sea and state borders. Particularly it is interested in how fishermen manoeuvre both private sector efforts to upgrade the national fish sector, international naval efforts to securitize the seas, as well as the historical aversion and political exclusion of fishermen within the region.