Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012
In this STS dissertation, I build on the controversy studies literature by opening the black box that is the Cohen Report, thereby illuminating the various forms taken by, and contestations associated with, controversial salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012, a federal inquiry into the decline o...
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ftyorkuniv:oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/38492 2023-05-15T16:17:17+02:00 Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 Sutherland, Callum Christopher James Alsop, Steven John 2021-07-06T12:52:31Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38492 en eng http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38492 Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests. Fisheries and aquatic sciences Actor-network theory Agnotology Animal studies Aquaculture Boundary objects Boundary work British Columbia Broughton Archipelago Cohen Commission Colonialism Commission of inquiry Controversial fish Controversy studies Counter-mapping DFO Expertise Feminist STS First Nations Fish controversies Fish pluralities Fisheries and Oceans Canada Fisheries biology Fraser River Fraser River fishery Human-fish relations Indigenous knowledge Neoliberalism Oncorhynchus nerka Pacific salmon Postcolonial technoscience Salmon farming Salmon studies Science studies Science technology and society Science and technology studies Social life of things Sociology of scientific knowledge Sockeye salmon Traditional ecological knowledge Electronic Thesis or Dissertation 2021 ftyorkuniv 2022-08-22T13:02:44Z In this STS dissertation, I build on the controversy studies literature by opening the black box that is the Cohen Report, thereby illuminating the various forms taken by, and contestations associated with, controversial salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012, a federal inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River of British Columbia, Canada. In this empirical study, I ask: (i) What are the primary sources of controversy in the Fraser River fishery? (ii) What salmon controversies are revealed through the social-life of sockeye, and how do they compare to those depicted in the Cohen Reports overview of the life-cycle of sockeye? (iii) What factors contributed to the (de)legitimation of particular understandings of controversial salmon during the Cohen Commission? To address these questions, I employed a three-phase, multi-method approach which involved (I) collecting qualitative data in the field; (II) creating a map from these data; and (III) using this map to analyze the social lives of various human and non-human actors. My primary research findings (1-9) shed new light on various salmon controversies, including those arising from (1) Indigenous responses to the ongoing experience of colonial violence and dispossession, (2) an ethic of exploitation oriented towards establishing and maintaining dominion over nature, (3) the prevailing view that fish (and fishing) are principally vehicles for economic growth and financial profit, and (4) the local effects of anthropogenic climate change. I also found that (5) these controversies are largely minimized by the Cohen Reports life-cycle overview, which reduces the sockeye life-cycle to a series of physiological transformations loosely connected to the particulars of place. During the Cohen Commission, salmon controversies were (de)legitimated through (6) the boundary work of expertise, (7) the Commissions emphasis on efficiently neutralizing contention, and (8) differing assessments concerning the importance of place. This resulted in the ... Thesis First Nations York University, Toronto: YorkSpace British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Canada Fraser River ENVELOPE(-62.243,-62.243,56.619,56.619) Pacific Sockeye ENVELOPE(-130.143,-130.143,54.160,54.160) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
York University, Toronto: YorkSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftyorkuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Fisheries and aquatic sciences Actor-network theory Agnotology Animal studies Aquaculture Boundary objects Boundary work British Columbia Broughton Archipelago Cohen Commission Colonialism Commission of inquiry Controversial fish Controversy studies Counter-mapping DFO Expertise Feminist STS First Nations Fish controversies Fish pluralities Fisheries and Oceans Canada Fisheries biology Fraser River Fraser River fishery Human-fish relations Indigenous knowledge Neoliberalism Oncorhynchus nerka Pacific salmon Postcolonial technoscience Salmon farming Salmon studies Science studies Science technology and society Science and technology studies Social life of things Sociology of scientific knowledge Sockeye salmon Traditional ecological knowledge |
spellingShingle |
Fisheries and aquatic sciences Actor-network theory Agnotology Animal studies Aquaculture Boundary objects Boundary work British Columbia Broughton Archipelago Cohen Commission Colonialism Commission of inquiry Controversial fish Controversy studies Counter-mapping DFO Expertise Feminist STS First Nations Fish controversies Fish pluralities Fisheries and Oceans Canada Fisheries biology Fraser River Fraser River fishery Human-fish relations Indigenous knowledge Neoliberalism Oncorhynchus nerka Pacific salmon Postcolonial technoscience Salmon farming Salmon studies Science studies Science technology and society Science and technology studies Social life of things Sociology of scientific knowledge Sockeye salmon Traditional ecological knowledge Sutherland, Callum Christopher James Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 |
topic_facet |
Fisheries and aquatic sciences Actor-network theory Agnotology Animal studies Aquaculture Boundary objects Boundary work British Columbia Broughton Archipelago Cohen Commission Colonialism Commission of inquiry Controversial fish Controversy studies Counter-mapping DFO Expertise Feminist STS First Nations Fish controversies Fish pluralities Fisheries and Oceans Canada Fisheries biology Fraser River Fraser River fishery Human-fish relations Indigenous knowledge Neoliberalism Oncorhynchus nerka Pacific salmon Postcolonial technoscience Salmon farming Salmon studies Science studies Science technology and society Science and technology studies Social life of things Sociology of scientific knowledge Sockeye salmon Traditional ecological knowledge |
description |
In this STS dissertation, I build on the controversy studies literature by opening the black box that is the Cohen Report, thereby illuminating the various forms taken by, and contestations associated with, controversial salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012, a federal inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River of British Columbia, Canada. In this empirical study, I ask: (i) What are the primary sources of controversy in the Fraser River fishery? (ii) What salmon controversies are revealed through the social-life of sockeye, and how do they compare to those depicted in the Cohen Reports overview of the life-cycle of sockeye? (iii) What factors contributed to the (de)legitimation of particular understandings of controversial salmon during the Cohen Commission? To address these questions, I employed a three-phase, multi-method approach which involved (I) collecting qualitative data in the field; (II) creating a map from these data; and (III) using this map to analyze the social lives of various human and non-human actors. My primary research findings (1-9) shed new light on various salmon controversies, including those arising from (1) Indigenous responses to the ongoing experience of colonial violence and dispossession, (2) an ethic of exploitation oriented towards establishing and maintaining dominion over nature, (3) the prevailing view that fish (and fishing) are principally vehicles for economic growth and financial profit, and (4) the local effects of anthropogenic climate change. I also found that (5) these controversies are largely minimized by the Cohen Reports life-cycle overview, which reduces the sockeye life-cycle to a series of physiological transformations loosely connected to the particulars of place. During the Cohen Commission, salmon controversies were (de)legitimated through (6) the boundary work of expertise, (7) the Commissions emphasis on efficiently neutralizing contention, and (8) differing assessments concerning the importance of place. This resulted in the ... |
author2 |
Alsop, Steven John |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Sutherland, Callum Christopher James |
author_facet |
Sutherland, Callum Christopher James |
author_sort |
Sutherland, Callum Christopher James |
title |
Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 |
title_short |
Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 |
title_full |
Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 |
title_fullStr |
Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sockeye at the Boundary: Controversial and Contested Salmon in the Cohen Commission, 2009-2012 |
title_sort |
sockeye at the boundary: controversial and contested salmon in the cohen commission, 2009-2012 |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38492 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) ENVELOPE(-62.243,-62.243,56.619,56.619) ENVELOPE(-130.143,-130.143,54.160,54.160) |
geographic |
British Columbia Canada Fraser River Pacific Sockeye |
geographic_facet |
British Columbia Canada Fraser River Pacific Sockeye |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38492 |
op_rights |
Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests. |
_version_ |
1766003122700812288 |