Abstract
Technology has politics and plays a role in societal governance. This article explores the fishing community of Karanrang island (Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia) to consider how fishing technologies reinforce existing power structures in the local informal governance system. Informal governance actors deploy the politics of technology in order to manage a socially problematic and environmentally destructive fishing economy. In the punggawa-sawi system of patron-client relationships, fishers are economically dependent on patrons, who supply them with fishing technologies like boats, bombs, and cyanide. The patrons themselves are embedded in a complex governance network, encompassing corrupt police and officials, importers, and live food fish traders. The politics of technology contribute to maintaining the local informal governance system of patron-client relationships. This paper draws upon theories from science and technology studies and network governance to argue that although patron-client relationships are problematic in themselves, the politics of technology further maintain power imbalances.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agnew, J. A. (2013). Territory, politics, governance. Territory, Politics, Governance, 1(1), 1–4.
Allison, E. H., & Ellis, F. (2001). The livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries. Marine Policy, 25(5), 377–388.
Baker, R. (1992). Scale and administrative performance: The governance of small states and microstates. In R. Baker (Ed.), Public administration in small and island states (pp. 5–25). West Hartford: Kumarian.
Baldacchino, G., & Pleijel, C. (2010). European islands, development and the cohesion policy: A case study of Kökar, Åland Islands. Island Studies Journal, 5(1), 89–110.
Bijker, W. E., et al. (Eds.). (2012). The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Brey, P. (2008). The technological construction of social power. Social Epistemology, 22(1), 71–95.
Buehler, M. (2010). Decentralisation and local democracy in Indonesia: the marginalisation of the public sphere. In E. Aspinall & M. Mietzner (Eds.), Problems of democratisation in Indonesia: Elections, institutions and society (pp. 267–285). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Cheong, S. M., & Hazelwood, E. (2014). Insularity and oil spill response in Grand Isle. GeoJournal. doi:10.1007/s10708-014-9570-x.
Chozin, M. (2008). Illegal but Common: Life of blast fishermen in the Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Unpublished MA thesis, Center for International Studies, Ohio University, June.
Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society. John Wilkinson (Translation). New York: Vintage.
Fabinyi, M. (2009). The politics of patronage and live reef fish trade regulation in Palawan, Philippines. Human Organization, 68(3), 258–268.
Fabinyi, M. (2011). Fishing for fairness: Poverty, morality and marine resource regulation in the Philippines. Canberra: ANU E Press.
Feenberg, A. (1992). Subversive rationalization: Technology, power, and democracy 1. Inquiry, 35(3–4), 301–322.
Feenberg, A. (2010). Between reason and experience: Essays in technology and modernity. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Ferse, S. C., et al. (2012). Livelihoods of ornamental coral fishermen in South Sulawesi/Indonesia: Implications for management. Coastal Management, 40(5), 525–555.
Fox, H. E., & Caldwell, R. L. (2006). Recovery from blast fishing on coral reefs: A tale of two scales. Ecological Applications, 16(5), 1631–1635.
Frey, J. B., & Berkes, F. (2014). Can partnerships and community-based conservation reverse the decline of coral reef social-ecological systems? International Journal of the Commons, 8(1), 26–46.
Galis, V., & Hansson, A. (2012). Partisan scholarship in technoscientific controversies: Reflections on research experience. Science as Culture, 21(3), 335–364.
Gladwell, M. (2011). From innovation to revolution: Do social media make protests possible? Foreign Affairs, 90(2), 153.
Glaeser, B., & Glaser, M. (2011). People, fish and coral reefs in Indonesia: A contribution to social-ecological research. GAIA, 20(2), 139–141.
Glaser, M., et al. (2010). ‘Nested’ participation in hierarchical societies? Lessons for social-ecological research and management. International Journal of Society Systems Science, 2(4), 390–414.
Graham, S., & Marvin, S. (2001). Splintering urbanism: Networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition. London and New York: Routledge.
Grydehøj, A. (2008). Nothing but a Shepherd and his dog: Social and economic effects of depopulation in Fetlar, Shetland. Shima, 2(2), 56–72.
Grydehøj, A. (2013). Challenges to local government innovation: Legal and institutional impediments to the exercise of innovative economic development policy by subnational jurisdictions. European Journal of Spatial Development, 50, 1–22.
Grydehøj, A. (2014). Constructing a Centre on the periphery: Urbanization and urban design in the island city of Nuuk, Greenland. Island Studies Journal, 9(2), 205–222.
Grydehøj, A., & Hayward, P. (2014). Social and economic effects of spatial distribution in island communities: Comparing the Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight, UK. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 3(1), 9–19.
Hicken, A. (2011). Clientelism. Annual Review of Political Science, 14, 289–310.
Hjelholt, M. (2011). Localizing national strategies: The circuits of power as a lens. Social Science Research Network. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1995444. Accessed 10 July 2014.
Je, J. G., et al. (2014). Shapes of fishing gears in relation to the tidal flat bio-organisms and habitat types in Daebu Island Region, Gyeonggi Bay. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 3(1), 31–40.
Karampela, S., et al. (2014). Accessibility of islands: Towards a new geography based on transportation modes and choices. Island Studies Journal, 9(2), 293–306.
Latour, B. (2002). Morality and technology: The end of the means. C. Venn (Translation). Theory, Culture and Society, 19(5–6), 247–260.
Lowe, C. (2002). Who is to blame? Logics of responsibility in the live reef food fish trade in Sulawesi, Indonesia. SPC Live Reef Fish Information Bulletin, 10, 7–16.
Marres, N. (2012). Material participation: Technology, the environment and everyday publics. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
McElroy, J. L., et al. (2014). A note on the significance of geographic location in island studies. Island Studies Journal, 9(2), 363–366.
Morozov, E. (2012). The net delusion: The dark side of internet freedom. New York: Public Affairs.
Neumayer, C. (2013). When neo-Nazis march and anti-fascists demonstrate: Protean counterpublics in the digital age. PhD thesis, IT University of Copenhagen. January.
Neumayer, C. & Valtysson, B. (2013). Tweet against Nazis? Twitter, power, and networked publics in anti-fascist protests. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 29(55), 3–20.
Norman, E. S. (2013). Who’s counting? Spatial politics, ecocolonisation and the politics of calculation in Boundary Bay. Area, 45(2), 179–187.
Nurdin, N., & Grydehøj, A. (2015). Informal governance through patron-client relationships and destructive fishing in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 3(2), (forthcoming).
Pelras, C. (2000). Patron-client ties among the Bugis and Makassarese of South Sulawesi. Bijdragen Tot De Taal-, Land-En Volkenkunde, 156(3), 393–432.
Pet-Soede, L., & Erdmann, M. V. (1998a). Blast fishing in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Naga—The ICLARM Quarterly, April–June, 4–9.
Pet-Soede, L., & Erdmann, M. V. (1998b). An overview and comparison of destructive fishing practices in Indonesia. SPC Live Reef Fish Information Bulletin, 4, 28–36.
Pierre, J., & Peters, B. G. (2000). Governance, politics and the state. Houndmills and London: Macmillan.
Prasetiamartati, B. (2006). How to invest in social capital? Lessons from managing coral reef ecosystem. Case from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Eleventh Biennial Conference of IASCP. Proceedings of a conference held in Ubud, Bali, 19–23 June 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10535/394. Accessed 10 July 2014.
Pugh, J. (2013). Speaking without voice: Participatory planning, acknowledgment, and latent subjectivity in Barbados. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103(5), 1266–1281.
Radjawali, I. (2012). Examining local conservation and development: Live reef food fishing in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia. Journal of Integrated Coastal Zone Management, 12(4), 545–557.
Rosen, P., & Rappert, B. (1999). The culture and politics of technology. SATSU Working Paper, 14, 1–7.
Schwerdtner Máñez, K., & Paragay, S. H. (2013). First evidence of targeted moray eel fishing in the Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Traffic Bulletin, 25(1), 4–7.
Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin.
Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2007). Theoretical approaches to governance network dynamics. In E. Sørensen & J. Torfing (Eds.), Theories of democratic network governance (pp. 25–42). Houndsmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Spilanis, I., et al. (2012). Accessibility of peripheral regions: Evidence from Aegean Islands (Greece). Island Studies Journal, 7(2), 199–214.
Tatar, B. (2014). The safety of bycatch: South Korean responses to the moratorium on commercial whaling. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures. doi:10.1016/j.imic.2014.08.002.
Torfing, J., et al. (2012). Interactive governance: Advancing the paradigm. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Trentmann, F. (2009). Materiality in the future of history: Things, practices, and politics. The Journal of British Studies, 48(02), 283–307.
Tufekci, Z., & Wilson, C. (2012). Social media and the decision to participate in political protest: Observations from Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 363–379.
Veenendaal, W. (2013). Size and personalistic politics: Characteristics of political competition in four microstates. The Round Table, 102(3), 245–257.
Verbeek, P. P. (2008). Morality in design: Design ethics and the morality of technological artifacts. In P. E. Vermaas, et al. (Eds.), Philosophy and design: From engineering to architecture (pp. 91–103). Dordrecht: Springer.
Williams, R., & Edge, D. (1996). The social shaping of technology. Research Policy, 25(6), 865–899.
Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121–136.
Wynne, B. G. (2007). Social capital and social economy in sub-national island jurisdictions. Island Studies Journal, 2(1), 115–132.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Grydehøj, A., Nurdin, N. Politics of technology in the informal governance of destructive fishing in Spermonde, Indonesia. GeoJournal 81, 281–292 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-014-9619-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-014-9619-x