Fishing, conservation, and development
This research, begun in 2001, follows several fishing communities in the Loreto area as they navigate the changes in fishing, tourism, and natural resource management in the area. The creation of the national park in 1996 out of the waters and islands used by fishermen, tourism, and others threatened access to local natural resources and altered the livelihood options of many of the local residents. During 2001-2003, I conducted participant observation with fishing families, park staff members, NGO employees, tourism entrepreneurs, and other people involved in the marine park and collected interview, survey, and observational data. I continue to work with the community and marine park on various topics.
In contrast to studies based on economic models of perfect rationality, I investigated the social influences on decision making, including trust, social goals, and group affiliation, as well as perceptions of risk and opportunities. I suggest that the failure of government agencies to manage resources and that of individuals to develop livelihood strategies can often be the result of misapprehending the source and kind of constraints on action or obstacles to decision-making within governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and economic development projects.
I am also interested in the shifts in the communities over time related to economic, political, and social changes and their relationships to other places. This includes the women-initiated businesses like bakeries and restaurants, as well as the transitions in tourism and fishing economies, educational opportunities, and family dynamics.
Publications:
Peterson, N. “We are daughters of the sea”: Strategies, networks, and gender in a Mexican women’s cooperative. Under revision for the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
Peterson, N. Forthcoming. Breaking the bounds of rationality: Values, relationships, and decision-making in Mexican fishing communities. Conservation and Society
Peterson, N. 2011. Excluding to include: (Non)participation in Mexican natural resource management. Agriculture and Human Values 28 (1): 99, as part of an organized symposium, “Participatory processes in agricultural development projects.” doi: 10.1007/s10460-010-9258-x.
Glenzer, K., Peterson, N., and Roncoli, C. 2011. Introduction to symposium on rethinking farmer participation in agricultural development: development, participation, and the ethnography of ambiguity. Agriculture and Human Values 28(1): 97.
Peterson, N. 2010. Choices, Options, and Constraints: Decisions in Natural Resource Management. Human Organization 69(1): 54-64.
Peterson, N. 2005. Casting a wide net: decision-making in a Mexican marine park. PhD Dissertation, UCSD Anthropology.