Michael recently joined the Centre as a postdoc in Program 7 after finishing his PhD at the ANU in 2009. His research background is in social anthropology, and is based on qualitative, ethnographic methods. His research focuses on the social and political aspects of marine resource management in the Philippines, and he has also worked in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Indonesia. Specific research interests include the live reef fish for food trade and other commodity chain fisheries in both source and market countries, and the relationship between tourism and marine resource management.
ABSTRACT:
In this talk I will present the outlines of a conceptual framework I will be using to study a significant commodity chain fishery for the Asia-Pacific region, the live reef fish for food trade. Based on ongoing and planned future research in both source (the Philippines) and market (mainland China) countries, I will focus on how an anthropological perspective on social institutions can be usefully applied to the study of commodity chains.