Abstract
Small‐scale fisheries and coastal communities experienced dramatic downward trends over recent decades impacting rural development on European coastlines. Fisheries governance in the ...European Union (EU) follows exogenous top‐down regulations steering fishing practices through detailed regulations. In contrast, the EU's structural funding system of Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) involves an endogenous approach consisting of more participatory bottom‐up processes. This article explores these approaches by investigating the capacity of Swedish FLAGs to support small‐scale fisheries and coastal communities. Using document analyses and interviews, we show that, in principle, the FLAG approach has the capacity to support local fisheries developments and to foreground small‐scale fisheries interests in combination with community interests. However, the unique Swedish FLAG experience reveals a diminished scope for including small‐scale fisheries’ and coastal communities’ interests on a structural basis. The Swedish FLAG experience, we conclude, mirrors a path‐dependent trajectory of marginalisation and disempowerment of local fisheries interests hampering the potential of endogenous development.
This article examines conflicts concerning urban space, focusing on relationships between autonomous space and neoliberal urbanism through the empirical example of the cultural centre AKC Metelkova ...Mesto in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Through a thematic discourse analysis of activist interviews and collective statements by activist groups connected to Metelkova, research questions concern how urban conflict is constructed from the vantage point of autonomous space; what role autonomous space is assigned in relation to such conflict; and how tensions and antagonisms within the autonomous space can be understood. Theoretically we engage in a reinterpretation of the notion of heterotopia in conjunction with critical urban theory, analysing Metelkova as an autonomous heterotopia. Further, we argue that theoretisations of autonomous spaces need to consider experiences from Central and Eastern Europe, in which the conditions are shaped and constructed in conjunction with particular configurations of abruptly implemented neoliberal governance and the rise of the authoritarianism.
New forms of institutional support within modern multi-level fisheries governance are urgently needed to address the decline of coastal and inland fisheries. The EU-funded Fisheries Local Action ...Group (FLAG) initiative promises new hope to small-scale fishers by channelling support for the development of local fishing communities. This paper analyses the potential of FLAGs to contribute towards revitalizing small-scale fisheries in Nordic settings. Drawing on documents, surveys and interviews, we compare the implementation of FLAGs in Finland and Sweden. These countries were selected for analysis because they exhibit major differences in the implementation of FLAGs, alongside similarities in their coastal fisheries and social contexts. A special structural feature in Sweden is that FLAGs have been entirely integrated into Local Action Groups set up under the LEADER programme, an EU initiative that supports development projects in rural, coastal and urban areas. As a result, fisheries issues that used to be addressed by sectoral fishery groups are now subsumed into broader territorial initiatives. In Finland, the FLAG system still comprises independent fishery groups, which collaborate with LEADER groups. Our comparison of the two cases demonstrates the importance of dedicated institutional support for small-scale fisheries to enable them to access funding opportunities provided by the EU’s FLAG initiative. Our comparative perspective enables conclusions to be drawn regarding the pros and cons of different approaches to the implementation of this hierarchical funding system, and the extent to which they can help restore fishers’ self-reliance and benefit local fishing livelihoods.
In this article we build on the “good farmer” literature to explore how Swedish coastal fishers represented the “good fisher” in the context of transformations in the social-ecological field of ...commercial fishing. Anthropological and other social science research on the “good farmer,” “good fisher,” “good crofter” and related life-modes, works against the reductionist models of farmers, fishers, and other livelihood actors as driven by profit or economic need. When such models inform environmental policy, management, and activism, they often lead to unintended and unfortunate consequences. Here, drawing on the Bourdieusian “good farmer” tradition, we use interviews and ethnographic materials to investigate what makes the “good fisher” in Swedish coastal fishing, paying particular attention to how fishers have responded to social and ecological changes by reskilling and developing a new practical sense for their profession. Our interlocutors experienced the transformations in Swedish coastal fishing as significantly modifying the skilled performance of fishing, yet the moral values that undergirded their notions of the “good fisher” closely resemble those described in the social science literature on coastal fishers. We argue that these stable moral values relate to the stakes and interests which animate commercial fishing as a social-ecological field, which non-fishers often misunderstand or neglect. Our study challenges reductionist models of fishers and other livelihood actors, a task that many scholars regard as crucial for making progress toward sustainable food, while reworking Bourdieusian theory deployed in “good farmer” research to include not only social but also ecological dimensions.
This chapter analyzes the autonomous squatted space AKC Metelkova Mesto in Ljubljana as a potential innovator of democratic practices and visions, responding to recent calls to focus on social ...movement innovations in revitalizing democracy. The study draws on qualitative methods, including interviews and document analysis, and reinterprets the concept of heterotopia in accordance with social movement activism within the context of increasing autocratization. The empirical analysis of Metelkova as a heterotopia established and upheld by an urban squatters' movement highlights the importance of the political identity of autonomy in constructing a heterotopic position and demonstrates divergent pathways of interpreting autonomy in relation to democratic practices and principles. Furthermore, examining a targeted attack on one part of Metelkova by a far-right state formation in tandem with a wider assault on civil society in 2020 allows for an analysis of the potential of heterotopic democratic practices in enacting social change, demonstrating the strategic role the heterotopic position can play in defending civic freedoms. This chapter calls for further investigation into heterotopic activism in prefiguring social alternatives and underscores the importance of heterotopic action, particularly under conditions of shrinking civic space.
Mycobacteria and related organisms in the Corynebacterineae suborder are characterized by a distinctive outer membrane referred to as the mycomembrane. Biosynthesis of the mycomembrane occurs through ...an essential process called mycoloylation, which involves antigen 85 (Ag85)‐catalyzed transfer of mycolic acids from the mycoloyl donor trehalose monomycolate (TMM) to acceptor carbohydrates and, in some organisms, proteins. We recently described an alkyne‐modified TMM analogue (O‐AlkTMM‐C7) which, in conjunction with click chemistry, acted as a chemical reporter for mycoloylation in intact cells and allowed metabolic labeling of mycoloylated components of the mycomembrane. Here, we describe the synthesis and evaluation of a toolbox of TMM‐based reporters bearing alkyne, azide, trans‐cyclooctene, and fluorescent tags. These compounds gave further insight into the substrate tolerance of mycoloyltransferases (e.g., Ag85s) in a cellular context and they provide significantly expanded experimental versatility by allowing one‐ or two‐step cell labeling, live cell labeling, and rapid cell labeling via tetrazine ligation. Such capabilities will facilitate research on mycomembrane composition, biosynthesis, and dynamics. Moreover, because TMM is exclusively metabolized by Corynebacterineae, the described probes may be valuable for the specific detection and cell‐surface engineering of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and related pathogens. We also performed experiments to establish the dependence of probe incorporation on mycoloyltransferase activity, results from which suggested that cellular labeling is a function not only of metabolic incorporation (and likely removal) pathway(s), but also accessibility across the envelope. Thus, whole‐cell labeling experiments with TMM reporters should be carefully designed and interpreted when envelope permeability may be compromised. On the other hand, this property of TMM reporters can potentially be exploited as a convenient way to probe changes in envelope integrity and permeability, facilitating drug development studies.
Modifying mycobacteria by mycoloylation: A suite of trehalose monomycolate (TMM)‐based metabolic reporters provides versatility and specificity for analyzing and engineering the outer membrane of living mycobacteria. These compounds gave insight into the substrate tolerance of mycoloyltransferases and allow one‐ or two‐step cell labeling, live cell labeling, and rapid cell labeling through tetrazine ligation.
In mycobacteria, the glucose-based disaccharide trehalose cycles between the cytoplasm, where it is a stress protectant and carbon source, and the cell envelope, where it is released as a byproduct ...of outer mycomembrane glycan biosynthesis and turnover. Trehalose recycling via the LpqY-SugABC transporter promotes virulence, antibiotic recalcitrance, and efficient adaptation to nutrient deprivation. The source(s) of trehalose and the regulation of recycling under these and other stressors are unclear. A key technical gap in addressing these questions has been the inability to trace trehalose recycling in situ, directly from its site of liberation from the cell envelope. Here we describe a bifunctional chemical reporter that simultaneously marks mycomembrane biosynthesis and subsequent trehalose recycling with alkyne and azide groups. Using this probe, we discovered that the recycling efficiency for trehalose increases upon carbon starvation, concomitant with an increase in LpqY-SugABC expression. The ability of the bifunctional reporter to probe multiple, linked steps provides a more nuanced understanding of mycobacterial cell envelope metabolism and its plasticity under stress.
To develop a deeper understanding of the optical signatures of both biological aerosols and potential interferents, we made field measurements of optical cross sections and compared them to ...model-based predictions. We measured aerosol cross sections by conducting a hard-target calibration of a light detection and ranging system (LIDAR) based on the Frequency Agile Laser (FAL). The elastic backscatter cross sections are estimated at 19 long-wave infrared (LWIR) wavelengths spanning the range from 9.23 to 10.696 μm. The theoretical modeling of the elastic backscatter cross sections is based on the measured refractive index and size distribution of the aerosols, which are used as inputs into Mie calculations. Both model calculations and experimental measurements show good agreement and also indicate the presence of spectral features based on single particle absorption in the backscatter cross sections that can be used as a basis for discrimination for both standoff and point sensors.
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