figshare
Browse

Social influence modelling demonstrates that strategic communication and depoliticization reduces conflict in aquaculture

Download (2.72 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2024-09-05, 05:11 authored by CM Condie, Elizabeth FultonElizabeth Fulton, KA Alexander, Joanna VinceJoanna Vince, Marcus HawardMarcus Haward, SA Condie
Conflict between stakeholder groups around social and environmental issues can fragment communities and disrupt development. For the past decade, salmon farming has globally been one of the most contentious issues within the aquaculture sector. Attempts to mitigate these conflicts have often been counterproductive due to high levels of distrust across stakeholder groups. A lower risk approach is to evaluate strategy options within a virtual socio-ecological system prior to real-world implementation. Using the Tasmanian salmon debate as a case study, this paper describes results from a social influence model that for the first time represents key stakeholder groups. This approach has allowed the responses of different stakeholders and their contribution to overall conflict to be explored and assessed under alternative communication strategies. Reductions in community conflict were achieved through improved marine literacy, collaborative learning amongst key stakeholder groups, and broad dissemination of information relating to industry performance on social and environmental issues. Model results further demonstrate that the perceived legitimacy of such initiatives depends on depoliticising the debate to address issues around regulatory capture. While applied here to salmon aquaculture, the modelling approach and lessons on effective communication strategies are likely to be relevant to a broad range of socio-ecological conflicts.

History

Publication title

Marine Policy

Volume

165

Article number

106211

Pagination

10

ISSN

0308-597X

Department/School

Office of the School of Social Sciences, IMAS Directorate, Oceans and Cryosphere

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Publication status

  • Published

Rights statement

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

UN Sustainable Development Goals

16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Usage metrics

    School of Social Sciences

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC