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environmental issues, such as many of the contributors of the cultural diversity debates of the

previous chapter, I do this in order to locate and describe the constitution of power in

defining the term and terms of sustainability, as well as in limiting those terms. This is a line

of inquiry that I take into the next chapter when I begin to think through the ways that

tonnare fishing communities are subject to sustainability governance, which in turn shapes

the possible ways of knowing and being in relation to tuna and their coastal environments.

Discourse

In simple terms a discourse is a framework within a given period or society that becomes a

way to make sense of the world (Benton & Short 1999, p.1). Drawing on the work of

Foucault, Stuart Hall states that a ‘discourse is a group of statements which provide a

language for talking about – i.e., a way of representing – a particular kind of knowledge

about a topic’ (Hall 2007, 56). As Hall articulates:

When statements about a topic are made within a particular discourse, the
discourse makes it possible to construct the topic in a certain way. It also limits the
other ways in which the topic can be constructed. (Hall 2007, p. 56)

Foucault put forward discourse as a way to understand knowledge production, as well as

productive, rather than oppressive, forms of power. Through its set of concepts, categories,

statements and practices that are interrelated and self-referent, a discourse works to form the

rules, truths and framing of a situation, object or term, and therefore define the scope of

possible ways of understanding, relating to and speaking of it.

Discourses are ways of talking, thinking, or representing a particular subject or
topic. They produce meaningful knowledge about that subject. This knowledge
influences social practices, and so has real consequences and effects. Discourses
are not reducible to class-interests, but always operate in relation to power – they
are part of the way power circulates and is contested. The question of whether a
discourse is true or false is less important than whether it is effective. When it is

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