Conflicting discourses of economy and society in coastal Brazil

This article analyses how conflicting discourses about the Brazilian fishing economy are reproduced in practice as different economic structures. These structures appear when actors enter into confrontations about issues such as fishing strategies, catch divisions, social mobility and the relation between fishing enterprise and household. Some disputes are settled through compromise. Others end by the use of force. This study focuses on conflicts which remain unresolved because they rest on conflicting economic discourses that continue to be reproduced in practice. -Author