Analysis of the communities of on-foot shellfish-gathering women in Galicia (Spain) based on Elinor Östrom’s governing the commons theory
Abstract
According to Elinor Östrom’s conceptual model, fisheries and shellfishing areas are commons resources. In 2019 in Galicia, 3,777 people were involved in the on-foot shellfish-gathering subsector. On-foot shellfish-gathering is traditionally practiced by women (70%) who belong to the shellfishing women’s associations, which, in turn, belongs to the fishermen’s guilds. In this article, we demonstrate that these entities, which are so typical of the Galician coast, fulfill the principles of institutional design and action developed by Östrom for the governance of the commons. Moreover, the study observes that these design principles are important mechanisms for reflection, diagnosis, and actions for improving the professional institutions that manage commons resources
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