On the Possibilities of Collaboration in the Valdés Peninsula: Fishers, Biologists, Anthropologists, and the Politics of Knowledge

In this paper Marin discusses the main issues that arose during her research about the participation of artisanal fishers in the policy-making context of the Valdés Peninsula protected area (Argentinian Patagonia). Drawing on her experience of collaborative research, the author reflects on the fact that both anthropologists and policy makers deal with different "experiences of the world." Through relativism anthropologists have elided the political necessity in such contexts of making these experiences mutually compatible. More recently, the idea of "taking seriously" has encouraged anthropologists to go a step beyond the old relativism and the predefined definition of categories such as "us" and "them" (see Viveiros de Castro 2003). Policy makers are confronted with views expressed in terms of contrasting interests and different priorities (Redpath et al. 2015, 3–18). They have been trying to reduce this incommensurability by formulating a framework of objectives, discourses, and arguments and by channeling all of them in one flat logic (cf. Argyrou 2005). In such an environment the author has tried to work with different groups, which are sometimes in open conflict with each other. Therefore she engages in a reflection about trust, as it is built between researchers and their collaborators, as well as on confidential information or knowledge. She examines the limits to the practice of collaborative anthropology, both in terms of the contrast with the methodologies of other researchers (e.g., marine resource biologists) and in terms of the goals of collaborators who are interested in the direct and tangible impact of the anthropological knowledge they are invited to co-develop.