Coercive and Discursive Compliance Mechanisms in the Management of Natural Resources

The debate in the social sciences on the management of common resources crosses interdisciplinary boundaries. Regulation brings little gain if the established rules are not complied with by the users of the resource. The book discusses how public authorities can influence the users' decision-making in this regard, using a variety of coercive and discursive measures. It thus addresses a topic that has suffered from neglect in both the theoretical and practical debate on natural resource management. The Barents Sea fisheries are used as a case study in the book. The Norwegian Coastguard have produced violation statistics and these are used to investigate the level of compliance in these fisheries. Furthermore, a group of Norwegian and Russian fishermen have been consulted, together with representatives of Norwegian fishermens' associations, by means of personal, in-depth interviews aimed at revealing their attitudes to the regulation, management and enforcement systems.