Social network mechanisms of price formation in an artisanal fishing community in Chile

Abstract

Local fish markets play a crucial role in meeting local and regional demand for seafood. However, the underlying social and local processes determining price formation in these markets still need to be clarified. Through ethnographic research of an artisanal fishing community in central Chile focused on the common hake catching (Merluccius gayi gayi), we found that mutual observation and negotiation are the two key social processes of the local economic order. These processes produce two local structures: (a) the fishers’ maritime cliques in the sea and (b) the chain structure in the cove, which combines commercial and community relationships to determine market prices.