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bringing that commodity into and out of being. There is a lot of marine biota that we aim to

protect in the name of a sustainable tin of tuna. What does not appear in the end commodity –

what economists term “externalities” – is just as, if not more, important than the contained

commodity. Here I am thinking of the by-products of a commodity, the waste matter that

continues after that commodity is consumed, and the central figures of sustainability debates

such as endangered species or whole ecosystems that never make it into the material

commodity itself. The commodity’s relationship with these externalities becomes important

in the context of sustainability discourses (think of the turtles and dolphins that appear in

tinned tuna campaigns). Since an aim of this thesis is to analyse cultural aspects of tuna (in

and out of its commodity state) and the conservation of tuna, I am interested in the socio-

cultural dimensions of those externalities too. These dimensions are significant, not only for

an ecological assessment, but also to understand and describe the sustainability assemblage of

which tuna and tuna fishing communities are a part.

Such a viewpoint of objects as made through material semiotic relations helps us to

elaborate and articulate the place of matter in social analysis. This is a necessary step for

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work connected to the turn to materialism , which often emphasises the agency of matter at
the expense of considering how that matter relates to wider cultural processes and socio-

political structures. The matter of matter should not be oversimplified, argue Abrahamsson et

al. (2015, p. 5). Rather, matter should be understood as ‘matter related’ (2015, p. 12). Using

the example of the fish used to make omega 3 dietary supplements, they argue that:

...this fish, in its turn, is not “fish itself”, but “fish-related” too. It relates to the
environmental and climatic changes that transform its habitat. It relates to the
zooplankton and smaller fish that it eats, and to other species (including human
beings from various parts of the world) that feed on it. And as human eaters
organise themselves in complex sociomaterial ways, the fish they eat has become
entangled with long-distant trade routes; laws to do with who is and who is not
allowed to catch fish, and where; ways of ducking these laws; huge disparities in
technological and other resources; ironic juxtapositions of (what might be glossed
as) theft and (what might be applauded as) aid. (Abrahamsson et al. 2015, p. 13)

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