Page 163 - KATE_JOHNSTON_2017

Like many environmental conflicts around the world, tuna in San Pietro in 2013 was certainly

more than a matter of fact: it aroused passions, raised many concerns, and was at the centre of

much conflict and diverse practices of care. This does not mean that the production of

scientific data is irrelevant, but rather it is a reminder of the social context and situated

concerns within which those facts exist. Dingpolitik as a science and technology studies

intervention may be a more realistic way to understand and respond to the issues surrounding

tuna and the tonnara. It offers an opportunity to reframe tuna, sustainability and the tonnara

as matters at the centre of much concern and conflict. It offers a chance to pay attention to

diverse motivations and positions of concern. It also offers an opportunity within

sustainability debates, to understand the context through which fish facts are produced and

issues are presented and represented (or sidelined) as though objective and value-free.

The term environmental conflict is the more common framework that acknowledges

diverse positions as well as social and political dimensions of an environmental issue. In the

realm of environmental management it goes some way to allow the debate to go beyond an

ecological or matter of fact framing (Carss et al. in Young et al. 2010, p. 3974). For example,

Young et al. (2010, pp. 3979-3980) bring together a topology of six conflict areas:

- Conflicts over beliefs and values, where differences exists over normative
perceptions;
- Conflicts of interest, when two groups want different things from the same
habitat or species;

- Conflicts over process, relating to the different approaches to decision-making
and fairness taken by different people, groups, or agencies;

- Conflicts over information, relating to situations where data are lacking,
misunderstood, or perceived in different ways by different actors;

- Structural conflicts referring to social, legal, economic and cultural
arrangements;

- Inter-personal conflicts relating to personality differences between individuals
or groups, including issues of communication and mistrust.

151