Mobilities, materialities, and masculinities: Interconnected mobility practices in Norwegian coastal fisheries

Abstract

On the coast of Finnmark in Northern Norway, the local fishery is and has been an integral aspect of the working lives of men and women. Fishing, a basis activity of fishery, is an inherently mobile activity. It involves bodily movement, as well as spatial and virtual movement, as fishers find available stocks also with the aid of digital and information technology. The case presented in the article shows that successful participation in both the fishing and the household is dependent upon varying degrees of geographical mobility onshore, including migration and commuting. The author examines the interconnections in mobility practices, paying particular attention to changing gendered relations and power relevant at household level, and explores how mobilities cross human and non-human boundaries via fishing practices. The main finding is that the mobility practices are many, varied, and interconnected, and should therefore be studied as such and over time.

Keywords:

• femininities
• fisheries
• masculinities
• materialities
• mobilities

Acknowledgements

The article was written as a part of the project Mobile Lifestyles: Perspectives on Work Mobilities in the High North, financed by the Research Council of Norway (Norges forskningsråd, NFR) and the Centre for Women and Gender Research (Kvinnforsk), University of Tromsø (UiT). The data collection was started during another NFR-financed project, Sustainable Coastal Culture. Without the support of the NFR and UiT, this article would not have been written. I also warmly thank my partner as well as the skipper and the boat-owner 'Peter' (in focus in this article), Kirsti Pedersen Gurholt, Ingrid Rudie, Magnfríður Júlíusdóttir, the referees, my fellow guest editors of this theme issue of Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography, the journal's copy editor and editorial assistant Catriona Turner, and the staff at Kvinnforsk for their enormous support.

Notes

1 Fictive names have been used to preserve anonymity. This is also the case for mentions of Peter's boat, the communities, and the municipalities. The reason is not only concern for the involved persons, but also because many of the practices that I describe and analyse could equally have taken place in other communities in the studied coastal region and been performed by other fishers.

2 In 2004, there were 12,266 full-time fishers in Norway, of which 272 were female fishers. The corresponding numbers for 2010 were 9670 male fishers and 254 female fishers (Fiskeridirektoratet 2008).

3 The vessel was registered under another name in the Norwegian register of vessels (Fiskeridirektoratet n.d.). See also note 1.

4 VHF (very high frequency) radio systems with a range of 30–300 MHZ are commonly used by fishers and are well suited for making contact over short distances with other maritime traffic.

5 Personal observations. Such data can also be found in the Norwegian register of vessels, in which boat owners’ postcodes are registered (Fiskeridirektoratet n.d.). Furthermore, I have observed the same tendencies in both Tromsø, the most populated city in Northern Norway, and the Alta region, which is the most populated area in Finnmark.

6 Evident from observations and talking to young commuters in central Finnmark.