Contesting Inclusiveness: The Anxieties of Mechanised Fishers Over Social Boundaries in Chennai, South India

As fisheries generally take place in a common pool resource in which exclusion is by definition difficult, they are a unique entry point to investigating the inclusive development concept. This article discusses the debates and interactions between owners of mechanized fishing boats in Chennai, India, over entry into their ocean fisheries. For the time period under consideration (1995-2014), we demonstrate that the discussion over social boundaries to the profession continued unabated, with moderate and more extreme views alternating and poorer owners standing opposed to the boat-owning elite. Interactive governance theory provides the framework of analysis. We conclude that governors - whether of the state or of the fishing population - need to balance between different policy objectives and between the imperatives of inclusion and exclusion to improve governability.