Paper short abstract:

Societies that rely on nature-based livelihoods are especially vulnerable when facing changes in their natural and cultural environment. How do these societies change and what kind of decision-making processes they have to go through while adapting to new circumstances?

Paper long abstract:

Rymättylä, a small former municipal of c. 2000 inhabitants (now part of city of Naantali), was known from its traditional and collectively executed herring catchment technique, ice-net fishing "talvinuottaus" (in Finnish). Due the many changes of global and local circumstances connected to this livelihood, such as the introduction of commercial fishing boats and the increasing consumer demand of imported fish, the new survival strategies had to be made by the ice-net fishing collectives. In the middle of 1990's however, the mild winter and thin ice cover became more of a norm, and the old traditional form of livelihood became more or less extinct.

My presentation addresses the questions of decision-making processes on the threshold of a major cultural and local change. What kind of decision-making strategies can be used? What are the decision-making processes like and who are the actors involving these processes? How the inhabitants can adapt to them as individuals and as a group? How can the sense of identity and locality be preserved in such circumstances? And finally, what are the applicable theoretical frameworks and methods to study these questions?