ILPC 2026

This paper examines the development of new organizational structures formed by members of a small fishing community on an island off the coast of North Carolina, USA in order to preserve jobs. It explores resistance to precarious labor through organizational innovation. 

In 2006 the last remaining fish house on the island of Ocracoke, North Carolina was closed. This closure occurred within the context of general decline in the fishing industry due to competition from imported seafood, state and federal regulations, loss of waterfront access and a shortage of skilled labor (Newsome, 2014). In response to this the local fishing community formed the Ocracoke Foundation (OFI) as a non-profit organisation with an aim of ‘community revitalisation through the responsible promotion and use of Ocracoke’s assets’ (Ocracoke Foundation, n.d.). The Ocracoke Foundation functions as the umbrella organisation for the Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association (OWWA) funded by the OFI, and the Ocracoke Seafood Company, a for-profit subsidiary of the OFI. The Ocracoke Foundation purchased the fish house and opened it as the Ocracoke Seafood Company, which now buys fish from the local fishermen to sell to a wholesale distributor, and through its retail business to locals and tourists on Ocracoke. While a for-profit business, the purpose of the Ocracoke Seafood Company is primarily ‘to provide a base of operations where all watermen… could operate from and expand their potential’ (Ocracoke Foundation, 2009).  For the past ten years this ‘innovative organisational form’ (Childs, 2016) that encompasses interlocked organizations has successfully managed to maintain the fishing industry on Ocracoke Island. From this context stems a need to examine how collective agency emerges (Kalleberg, 2009). The formation of alternative organisational structures is pre-eminently a political process from which novel forms of collective action, especially connected social movements, have the potential to emerge (Rao et al, 2000). Relatively unfashionable industries–of which fishing is an example–are not often discussed but nonetheless can provide deep insight into the changing nature of capitalism, “for in their histories and in their present circumstances, they have experienced how capitalism can create and then dismiss a way of life” (Nadel-Klein, 2003: 1). With this context of decline this study demonstrates possible strategies for preserving the jobs, industry, and communities, through novel forms of collective action, organisational structures, political lobbying and marketing. This paper is based on data collected via interviews with local participants and representatives of relevant organizations, as well as through the use of  secondary sources.

REFERENCES

Child, A. (2016) ‘Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association and Ocracoke Seafood Company: A case study of collective action in small-scale fisheries in Ocracoke, North Carolina, USA’ in Siar, S. And Kalikowski, D. (Eds.) Strengthening organisations and collective action in fisheries: Towards a formulation of a capacity development programme. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. [Online] http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6205e.pdf [Accessed 4 January, 2017].

Kalleberg, A. (2009) ‘Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition’, American Sociological Review, 74(February): 1-22.

Nadel-Klein, J. (2003) Fishing for Heritage: Modernity and Loss Along the Scottish Coast. Oxford: Berg.

Newsome, J. (2014) An Analysis of North Carolina’s Seafood Industry: National and State Perspective. [Online] http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/ncgt/analysis-of-nc-seafood-industry-national-and-state-perspective.pdf [Accessed 22 September 2015].

Ocracoke Foundation (n.d.) ‘Ocracoke Foundation - About Us’ [Online] http://ocracokefoundation.org/about-us.html [Accessed 17 April 2016].

Ocracoke Foundation (2009) ‘Appendix Four - Three Year Review May 2009’ [Online] http://nebula.wsimg.com/0f85b67b4f9a0de3bb7a53d41cfbcffa?AccessKeyId=E2AEA05A92953717D8F7&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 [Accessed 17 April 2016].

Rao, H., Morrill, C. And Bald, M. (2000) ‘Power plays: how social movements and collective action create new organisational forms’, Research in Organizational Behaviour, (22): 237-281.