Beyond the cooperative: the story of collective action in North Carolina’s small-scale fisheries

Abstract

The cooperative is often portrayed as the ideal organizational form to overcome poverty in fisheries. Recently however, different organizational forms have come into being that are more difficult to define due to their multifaceted and innovative nature. These are what Kurien (2013) deems a “new supported organizational form,” which can also be viewed as a form of “collective social entrepreneurship.” They are a type of collective action that are tackling complex, deeply rooted issues, most often related to poverty. The story of how these organizations came into being, how they have been sustained, and what they have achieved is few; this paper seeks to document one case. From December 2013 to April 2014, community participatory research comprised mostly of individual interviews was conducted with the Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association (OWWA), based on the island of Ocracoke, North Carolina, USA. These nationally recognized efforts not only enabled the watermen to preserve and strengthen their livelihoods and culture but also helped to maintain the island’s tourism industry. This paper discusses the evolution of this organizational form and how it has helped keep watermen on the water and revive and sustain a small-island community’s fisheries culture and related tourism. In a larger sense, the paper aims to demonstrate why a new supported organizational form and collective social entrepreneurship were needed to help reduce the vulnerability of poverty the watermen and community of Ocracoke.