Introduction
Part I: A metabolism of labour and environment
1 'Working the ground'
2 From Wullie's Peak to the Burma: naming places at sea
Part II: Techniques and technologies
3 Techniques to extend the body and its senses
4 From 'where am I?' to 'where is that?' Rethinking navigation
Part III: Capitalism and class
5 'You just can't get a price': the difference political economy
makes
6 Structural violence in ecological systems
Conclusion: labour, class, environments and anthropology
Index
Penny McCall Howard is National Research Officer for the Maritime Union of Australia and is an Honorary Associate in the Anthropology Department of the University of Sydney
'Brilliant...boldly bridging the conceptual gap between studies of
work and the environment, McCall Howard's ethnography charts an
innovative and ambitious course for research on the
Anthropocene...tremendously compelling.'
Brandon Hunter-Pazzara, Current Anthropology
‘As Howard makes clear capital and its drive to profit must be
challenged—this book is a weapon in that fight.’
Sarah Ensor, International Socialism, A quarterly review of
socialist theory
How do the fishers relate to each other, their boats, their
technologies, the sea, their catches? In this deeply researched
book, written with an intimate feel for fishing and the sea, Penny
McCall Howard answers these questions. Based on the Scottish
industry, this important book shows how class relations continue to
shape labour, working relationships, environments and at times life
and death. Few researchers hold both a 100-ton captain’s licence
from the US Merchant Marine and a doctoral degree; few are as at
home on a fishing boat’s deck as they are in a library. Penny
McCall Howard brings a unique blend of abilities to this compelling
account of work and has produced an argument for rethinking how we
understand the nature of labour in any industry and in all
places.
Professor Bradon Ellem, University of Sydney Business School
‘It is rare to find a work that so compellingly integrates a
phenomenological analysis of the experience of work, based on
participant observation, with an account of the pressures of
political economy and dynamic patterns of class relations in a
specific industry. Inspired by Robert Desjarlais, Howard achieves a
‘critical phenomenology’, giving greater depth to phenomenological
description by linking sensation, perception and subjectivity to
pervasive systems of power and inequality. These in turn are
connected to the mutually constitutive connections between workers
and the environment that create productive fishing grounds.’
Professor Linda Connor, The Australian Journal of Anthropology
‘The description of the lived experiences of the author and fishers
are used to create an absorbing and, at times, moving narrative….It
is the ability to connect the daily lives of fishers to seemingly
distant market forces that makes Environment, labour and capitalism
at sea an exceptional book…There is an incredible amount to this
text that will be of relevance to those interested in global supply
chains, environment labour relations, social relations of work,
neo-liberalism and regulation….McCall Howard’s deeply rich and
confronting account of the social relations that face and at times
overwhelm the fishers of the west coast of Scotland needs be read
by people interested in work and our collective environmental
future.’
Dr. Caleb Goods, Journal of Industrial Relations
‘This story of how livelihoods are wrestled from the sea is an
anthropological first. Never before has the work of commercial
fishermen been brought to life with such vividness, depth and
attention to detail, or subjected to such rigorous and hard-headed
analysis.’
Professor Tim Ingold, Chair in Social Anthropology, University of
Aberdeen, UK
‘Environment, Labour and Capitalism at Sea unpacks the broader
social forces that mediate interactions between human beings and
their marine environment while simultaneously drawing out the
individual stories and life histories of Scottish fishers….It is
well written and emotive. The honest portrayal of the suffering of
conflicted fishers who struggle against forces beyond their control
aids in our understanding of the root causes of environmental
change and the metabolic relationship between humankind and nature.
Readers who study environmental sociology, food, and agricultural
systems would do well to read Howard’s work.’
Timothy P. Clark, Human Ecology Review
‘This well-written and memorable account provides thought-provoking
reading on an industry that is poorly understood. As such it will
merit a space on the shelves of those who are interested in
fishing, in ethnography, and in the human costs of capitalism.’
Helen Sampson Cardiff University, Journal of Royal Anthropological
Institute, 24:4
'Penny McCall Howard provides us with a thoroughly engaging and
sensitively written account of the multiple forces that shape
fishers’ lives at sea. Based on extended participant observation
both on boats and on land on the west coast of Scotland, the
richness of the material presented for analysis reveals the quality
of her fieldwork practices and the strength of the relationships
she forged with fishers during that time….Howard’s work represents
a refreshing contribution to ethnographies of northern Scotland
because it firmly dispels the tired tropes of rural idylls and
bucolic landscapes that have long been associated with this part of
the world.'
Louise Rebecca Senior, Social Anthropology
‘Environment, Labour and Capitalism at Sea is a remarkable work.
It’s a first rate piece of Marxist anthropology that puts human
labor at the center of a discussion about ecology. It shows how the
biodiversity crisis in the oceans is related to wider social
relations, and emphasizes again how the fight to prevent
environmental destruction requires challenging the priorities of
the system — not just changes to our diet. For radical
environmentalists and Marxist ecologists this should be a required
read.’
Martin Empson, climate and Capitalism, June 2019
'It has been a pleasure to read this book, and I highly recommend
it to everyone.'
Charles Menzies, Journal of Agrarian Change
'Howard has written a rare book that presents complex and
well-formulated arguments while also being immersive, exciting, and
hugely enjoyable to read. Drawing together phenomenology and
political economy, Howard analyzes labor through its perceptual
engagement with the environment, insisting that the environment is
not just land and sea, but also markets, competition, and traumatic
experiences of loss.'
Rebecca Prentice, Focaal-Journal of Global and Historical
Anthropology
*.*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
