Job description

Lancaster University /University of Washington Hours: Full time Length: 24 months We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic social scientist, economic geographer, critical accountant, or someone from an allied field, to contribute, as part of the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Fellowship, to a project critically investigating the governance and finance landscape of fishy food systems in West Africa. Working closely with collaborating organizations the project will develop a mixed methods approach to collect qualitative and quantitative data to critically analyse the governance and finance of fish food systems in West Africa. Africa has been heralded as the last frontier of global capitalism, highlighting how intertwined the future of Africa and capitalism are. Indeed, West Africa's waters are the focus of increasingly global economic actors capitalizing on the productive fisheries of the region through industrial fishing, on-shore processing of small-pelagic fish, and of attempts to develop other sectors of the maritime economy through 'blue growth' plans. These actors have a corporate form, and have rationales and ways of working, that reflect their operating context and finance base, which are a world away from that of the majority ocean resource users. The scale of these activities, made possible by increasingly opaque sources of finance, risk undermining both the sustainability of fish stocks and the food sovereignty of the entire region. West Africa's waters are thus in need of a transformation in oceans governance, towards a system that is more effective at ensuring the ocean economy reflects the values, priorities, capabilities, and existing rights of the majority ocean resource users: small-scale fish workers. This aim of this position is to: 1) critically evaluate the finance landscape behind emergent patterns of investment and growth in fisheries exploitation in the region; and, 2) to document the importance of fish production and surrounding practices to regional food sovereignty. In doing so, we aim to co-develop tools and knowledge that can support small-scale fish workers in improving their livelihoods and contributions to the region. Citizens of ECOWAS nations are strongly encouraged to apply Reading Campling, L. and Quentin, C., 2021. Global inequality chains: how global value chains and wealth chains (re) produce inequalities of wealth. In Rethinking Value Chains (pp. 36-55). Policy Press. Jouffray, J.B., Crona, B., Wassénius, E., Bebbington, J. and Scholtens, B., 2019. Leverage points in the financial sector for seafood sustainability. Science Advances, 5(10), p.eaax3324. Ouma, S., 2015. Assembling export markets: The making and unmaking of global food connections in West Africa. John Wiley & Sons. Please note: Unless specified otherwise in the advert wording, all advertised roles are UK based. The University provides an environment that strongly supports the individual needs of each employee, whilst promoting the importance of wellbeing for all our colleagues. We have a range of support networks available for our employees, and more information on these can be found on the 'Working at Lancaster' information page. We are committed to family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis. The University recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address all inequality in higher education. We warmly welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of their age, religion, gender identity or expression, race, disability or sexual orientation, and are committed to promoting diversity, and equality of opportunity. Jobs.ac.uk