Decoding Cultural Models to Understand Coastal Territorial Conflicts in Small Island Regions_NoCrises

Description

The study goal was to identify the cultural model that stakeholder groups use to determine whether their cultural views of property rights (use and access) and management techniques differed among the surveyed island regions: El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain); Mahé, Praslin and La Diegue Islands (Seychelles) and Dunde (Solomon Islands). The dataset contains results from an agreement questionnaire based on the Cultural Consensus Analysis (Bernard, 2000). Within every community (zone) on each island region, a random stratified sample of households was chosen. Each interview was conducted with a chosen household head in the local language. Interviewers were also indigenous from each region and had previous experience working on every zone, employing qualitative research tools. A total of 400 surveys were conducted at the sampled locations within the island groups. The research methods and activities were approved by Rhodes University Human Research Ethics Committee (RU-HREC), approval number 2023-5096-8105. Ecosdyn (Eco-social Dynamics Consulting) and the University of La Laguna were also involved in the study and dataset development.

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The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather specific information about local cultural knowledge regarding the condition of the local fisheries as well as issues of resource use and access in relation to management solutions and potential conflicts. The following criteria guided the design of the questionnaires: (1) spatial governance cognition differences and similarities among stakeholder groups in leadership (as a proxy for ‘cultural consensus’); (2) cultural attitudes toward interloping and good resource management (as a proxy for ‘access enforcement’); and (3) the conditions of the resources (as a proxy for ‘harvest limitations’) , based on Aswani (2005). Questions in the survey instrument were in a dichotomous (Yes/No) categorical data format and were designed to be somewhat repetitive to identify consensus (validation and patter recognition), reduce response variability (individual and stakeholder group responses), increase reliability, and mitigate cognitive bias. Standard ethnographic methods of participant observation and informant interviews were paired with this cognitive anthropology method.

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