Sosekima : proceedings of socio-economics, innovation and management of the Java sea pelagic fisheries

Both accesses to and mobility within the world of fisheries depend on two conflicting forces. On the one hand, one becomes a fisherman and one moves ahead in the occupation because one is born in a coastal village, one originates from a fisherman's family and one has learned the trade from within. On the other hand, one becomes a fisherman because the skills acquired at school prepare him to face the various uncertainties associated with fishing activities. The data collected here suggest that a) the first force explains the professional trajectories of skippers, b) the second one accounts for the careers of mechanics (motoris) and c) the two opposite forces illuminate the social diversity of unskilled sailors. With the current innovations that affect the fleet of purse seiners and with the accentuated disparities in the growth rates of Javanese economic and demographic structures, the contrasts opposing the patterns of mobility experienced by skippers and their motoris should decline. Furthermore, fishermen communities should lose progressively their specificity and their identity, with fisheries becoming just another type of economic sector. (Résumé d'auteur