I have spent my adult life on the oceans, first in the Merchant Navy, then as a campaign leader with a direct-action conservation group, and finally in research and advocacy work with workers and fishers’ collectives in the seafood industry. I hold a MSc in Development Studies from SOAS and am currently a National Council member of the National Platform for Small-Scale Fish Workers. I currently research and work on matters related to migration and working conditions in India’s marine fishing sector, the social relations of shrimp farming in coastal states and the changing policy landscape of inland fisheries. I am most active on Instagram where I post about matters related to the oceans and seafood.
My research looks at the dynamic interplay between capital, labour, and nature in the production of seafood in India. The attempt is to look relationally at each of these components- how capital appropriates nature and exploits labour, but also how nature resists commodification and labour resists exploitation. In doing so, the hope is that the study of the indeterminacies in natural-resource industries lend a deeper insight into firm strategies and the organisation of seafood Global Value Chains. Ultimately, in the age of ecological decline, what firms do to convert nature into resources through the labour process, matters; matters both to theoretically advance our collective understanding of firms and to foster just environmental and social outcomes.
Non-peer Reviewed Articles: