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My starting point in responding to these questions is that sustainability is more than a

response to the suite of global environmental problems (e.g. tuna stocks decline, bycatch).

Rather, sustainability has a productive power that encompasses cultural facets within the very

knowledge frameworks and institutions that enable identification and measurement of the

object of sustainability, and also determine forms of intervention. When the goal is to

simultaneously sustain fish and fishing cultures (e.g. fishers, fishing communities, practices,

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tastes, systems) the situation becomes even more complicated. My case study of the tonnara
(a tuna trap fishery used for many centuries in Southern Italy) exemplifies this complexity.

Multiple groups are invested in the project of preserving this fishing system and its traditions.

I analyse these complexities by examining, not only the productive capacity and cultural

conditions of sustainability, but also the discursive power of the term culture. I want to

consider how we might recognise cultural factors and how we might define culture in relation

to other “pillars” (social, environmental and economic) of an integrated model of

sustainability. Consequently, my thesis aims to contribute to the field of cultural studies by

developing a theoretical framing of culture in relation to environmental conflicts; a framing

that deepens understandings of cultures of sustainability and addresses the challenge of

defining and sustaining cultures.

Slippery Subjects

Let us consider the subjects of this thesis. Tuna are a tribe of several distinct species

scientifically described as thunnini. The tribe includes yellowfin, bigeye, albacore and four

species of bluefin (Atlantic, Pacific, longtail and southern bluefin), which are widely

distributed throughout the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Even though tuna share common traits and are often grouped together in popular discourse,

they are diverse creatures physiologically and in the ways they come to matter in the

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