chapter 20 Subsidiarity as a guiding principle for small-scale isheries Maarten Bavinck 1 and Svein Jentoft Imagination is a key ingredient for governing isheries, and the subsidiarity principle is one of its more interesting fruits. Born in the realm of political theory, it emphasizes the rights of lower units vis-à-vis higher ones and the need to ‘build bias’ in decision-making. In line with others, such as Mathew (2005), we suggest applying subsidiarity to issues of scale and technology. The argument is that when small-scale ishers can do the job just as well (or better), they are given priority over large-scale ishers. Everyone who is less important has to get out of the way of everyone who is more important. (Lewis 1954) Subsidiarity is the principle that each social and political group should help smaller or more local ones accomplish their respective ends. Carozza (2003) Introduction 2 Small-scale ishers are used to being pushed around. As C.S. Lewis points out, describing traic rules in the ictive country of Tashbaan, the fate of those who are ‘less important’ is frequently ‘to get out of the way’ and make the best of the situation. The images available for the future of small-scale isheries are not always very favorable – neither among ishers, nor among scientists and policymakers. 1 Corresponding author: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, j.m.bavinck@ uva.nl 2 A shorter version of this paper was published in Samudra (2008, volume 51) and in Common Voices (2011, issue 5). Chuenpadgee.indd 311 14-6-2011 16:06:43