SOCIAL-THEORY AND FISHERIES COMANAGEMENT

Go-management is a tool of fisheries management that has received much attention in recent years. Although there are great hopes about what it may accomplish, there are also serious doubts, questions and critic isms regarding its general applicability. We believe that many of thes e concerns are valid ones. However, many of the negative predictions r eflect overly narrow perspectives on the role and nature of Institutio ns. Other, no less valid, presuppositions lead to more optimistic hypo theses concerning the outcomes of cc-management arrangements. The inst itutional problems associated with comanagement have been analyzed fro m the perspective of rational choice. We offer another perspective by analyzing these problems from the standpoint of how institutions are e mbedded in human community. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.