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Paper short abstract

Drawing on ethnographic research with Taiwanese fishing communities affected by offshore wind development, this paper engages Miyazaki's critical analysis of compensation and fishers' relational ethics to reframe compensation as ongoing responsibility and sustained conversations.

Paper long abstract

The rapid expansion of offshore wind in Taiwan's central-western coastal waters has created spatial pressure on traditional fishing grounds. Current compensation models rely on one-time monetary payouts to settle conflicts. Yet despite receiving substantial compensation, fishers do not feel justly treated. Such transactional approach fails to address the socio-ecological complexity of the sea and the relational ethics within the coastal fishing communities.

Drawing on ethnographic research with coastal small scale fisheries navigating offshore wind development, this paper interprets how fishers articulate what just compensation should mean. Their accounts reveal that adequate compensation is not merely about money, but must accord with local relational ethics, which center on reciprocity, sustained connection, and ongoing responsibility to respond to one another. Engaging with Hirokazu Miyazaki's reframing of compensation as responsibility in his research on Fukushima nuclear disaster, I argue that fishers' critiques offer an alternative vision: compensation as an opening of continuing conversations over unfolding changes rather than their closure.

Informed by Miyazaki's framework, I suggest an anticipatory and participatory approach: establishing forums before development that position fishers as partners, implementing long-term environmental monitoring where fishers can track changes in their waters, and developing adaptive structures open to uncertain futures. This paper contributes to energy justice scholarship by centering fishers' own ethical frameworks, and proposes that responsibility and relationality should guide compensation scheme in energy transitions.