Coastal Southeast Asia is undergoing rapid economic change. Rising seafood demand, growing wealth and mobility, and state enthusiasm for the 'blue economy' have made mariculture and coastal tourism two of the most significant new sectors along coasts once dominated by small-scale fishing. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Philippines since 2005, this seminar examines how small-scale fishers engage with these sectors, and what outcomes they produce.

The first part presents the argument of a book I am writing. I describe the different ways in which small-scale fishing households transition into these new livelihoods fully, partially, or not at all. While tourism is flexible and generates wide economic multiplier effects, mariculture tends to be more capital-intensive and reliant on external labour, and for most households is supplemental at best. Outcomes are mediated by class, gender, ethnicity, geography and land tenure, and policymakers exert far less control over these transitions than blue economy visions assume.

The second part examines how such insights travel into research for development, drawing on an ongoing program of research funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) that seeks to improve coastal livelihoods through better coral reef governance. This includes discussion of the challenges involved in translating conceptual insights into practical outcomes.

As an anthropologist rather than a demographer, I close by flagging points of contact I would welcome discussion on occupational multiplicity and how poorly it is captured by instruments recording a single primary occupation; the generational division of livelihood activity within households; and the value of 'transition' as a conceptual lens.

Michael Fabinyi is a Professor at the Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney, and a Visiting Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University. An anthropologist by training, he completed his PhD at ANU in 2009. Between 2010 and 2016 he was based at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, and has also held visiting appointments at Peking University and WorldFish. His research focuses on small-scale fisheries, coastal livelihoods, agrarian change, and seafood trade. Current projects include the role of China in global fisheries, the governance of coral reefs in the Philippines, and small-scale fisheries in Southeast Asia.

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