(R)evolving masculinities in times of change amongst small-scale fishers in North Wales

Abstract

Whilst fishing men have commonly been investigated through the lens of ‘hegemonic masculinity’, recent studies have highlighted a potential change and nuancing of such fishing masculinities. Inspired by the call to pay attention to masculinities as fluid, contextual and interpersonal, this paper pays attention to scalar, placed and temporal specificities to consider how ‘socially-dominant masculinities’ can develop (and persist) in specific contexts. A case study of the North Wales Llŷn peninsula fishery is drawn upon in examining how local practices (re)define what it means to be a man in this area. The paper highlights the continued importance of the physicality of fishing in shaping locally socially-dominant masculinities – noting how fisher’s bodies are not only central to masculine performances but also embody their fishing history and their relative positioning in their locality. It considers the relational nature of fishing masculinities –noting how masculinity is written both spatially in relation to practices ‘on land’ and ‘at sea’ and also temporally through reference to both past practices and predecessors. Finally, the paper considers changes to fishing masculinities, especially associated with family life and changing economic contexts, noting how such new practices may be incorporated into longer-standing aspects of fishing masculinity.

Keywords:

• Fathering
• intergenerationality
• North Wales
• rural change
• socially-dominant masculinities
• small-scale fishing

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the fishing families who volunteered their time to this research. We also want to extend our thanks to the three anonymous reviewers and the editors, Pamela Moss and Katherine Brickell, who provided very generous comments on the initial version of this paper. Madeleine also thanks Memorial University and University of Zurich for providing space and collegial support when writing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool; and the Economic and Social Research Council under Grant ES/R00580X/1.

Notes on contributors

Madeleine Gustavsson

Madeleine Gustavsson is a Reseach Fellow at the University of Exeter. Her research focus on marine and coastal sustainability drawing on social science methods to understand the lifeworlds of people living with the sea. Madeleine has recently been awarded a ESRC New Investigator fellowship to research the changing lives of women in small-scale fishing families in the UK and Newfoundland, Canada.

Mark Riley

Mark Riley is a Reader in Geography at Liverpool University. His research interests relate broadly to the social and cultural aspects of rural and environmental change. He is particularly interested in themes of gender and identity in rural communities. Mark has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship to focus on the cultures of family farming using a return life history approach.