Case
Endreport research Fieldwork NL: Urk
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This is the end-report for a month-long fieldwork on Urk where we looked at the role of fishing in the community
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,InhoudsopgaveGenacht......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Theoretical Framework.................................................................................................................................. 4
Operationalization and Methods.................................................................................................................... 6
You Can’t Talk About Urk Without Talking Fish.............................................................................................10
The Female Network on Urk – Emancipated and Independent.........................................................................10
Marriage and Love – Perspectives on Love and Marriage Shown by Fishing Families......................................12
Adjusted Beliefs – Religious Ideas and Practices Shaped by Fishing..................................................................14
Urker Mentality – How Economic and Political Hardships Form Identity..........................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................... 19
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................ 21
Appendixes.................................................................................................................................................. 23
Appendix I: Pictures............................................................................................................................................23
Appendix II: Survey.............................................................................................................................................25
Appendix III: Interview and Observation Guide..................................................................................................31
Appendix IV: Information Sheet.........................................................................................................................35
Appendix V : Ethics Statement...........................................................................................................................36
Appendix VI: Logbook.........................................................................................................................................42
,Genacht
On Urk, there is a saying ‘Genacht’. This means goodbye and is used instead of ‘goodnight’ when
people go to sleep. This saying originates from fishing families, where the father would leave in the
middle of the night. His family would say ‘Genacht’ to him instead of goodnight as a promise and a
reminder that they would see each other again, as it was never certain that they would see each
other again if he went fishing. Even now, this saying is often used by families when someone goes to
sleep or when a family member will go fishing. As a special reminder of the Urker history of fishing.
The fishing profession permeates all aspects of life on Urk, from things as small as bedtime rituals or
toilet decor to the bigger things like the Urker economy, identity or religion. The history of fishing on
Urk still has a lot of value on Urk, for the reason that while a lot of the inhabitants still have jobs
relating to the fishing industry, the influence runs much deeper. It returns not just in the economic
sense but is also very important for Urker culture and its social life. The different aspects of the Urker
community serve as a lens to look at how the community of Urk is bound by fish, using social, cultural
and economic aspects. The community of Urk structures their daily lives and lifestyle highly around
the ongoing fishing history and culture of the village.
However, the fleet is shrinking as well as the quota which is the amount of fish that is allowed to be
caught due to politically inforced regulations there are more and more economical hardships for
fishermen. Nevertheless, the Urker fishing industry is still an important aspect of the community,
even taking into account the hardships placed upon it that would suggest the shrinkage or even
disappearance of the fishing industry/profession on Urk (Volkskrant, 2021). Still, the opposite is true.
To fully understand how Urk is still bound by fish today, it is important to gain a more complete
picture of the different aspects of the Urker community and how fish helps to co-create it. Therefore,
this report focuses on fishermen and their families and what aspects of their lives on Urk show that
the community is bound by fish.
In the winter of 2021-2022, we conducted ethnographic research on how the fishing profession
influences the daily lives and lifestyle of the inhabitants of Urk and how the fishing profession is part
of all aspects of the social, cultural and economic lives of its inhabitants. These insights are
represented in this report, we will argue and elaborate on how different aspects of the community
are constructed and held together by practices that stem from the fishing profession.
, Theoretical Framework
First, we look at community, to get a better understanding of what constitutes a community and
what we understand it to be. Brint (2001) understood communities of people to be bound by certain
beliefs and actions, sharing values and relations with each other. This is supported by MacQueen,
McLellan, Metzger, Kegeles, Strauss, Scotti, Blanchard and Trotter (2001) while adding that a
community can be further defined as engaging in actions in shared geographical locations and
settings and that the experience of community differs from one place to another. McKeown,
Rubinstein and Kelly (2008) finally add another aspect of community, saying that while communities
are a multifaceted concept, you can best look at them as social processes among individuals and
groups, as all communities contain smaller communities within themselves. We use these definitions
of community to look at the different aspects of the community of Urk and its fishing industry. By
looking at these various parts of a community and of Urk itself, we attempt to gain a deeper
understanding of how the community of Urk is built up and how the fishing industry is an integral
part of its community.
Because of the aspect of communities that McKeown et al (2008) add to Brint (2001) and MacQueen
et al (2001), saying that it is important to look at communities as compilations of social processes, we
narrow down the concept to a smaller dimension of ‘identities’, so that we can both research the
broader and the smaller relations on Urk.
Identities can be either personal or collective. It refers to where a person or group belongs, what
image they present of themselves or the group and what makes them different from ‘others’
(Golubovic, 2010). Griffiths (2015) adds to this, saying identity can be used to describe and refer to
various realms of being, including religious, political, private and cultural realms.
In this research, the focus lies on both personal and collective identities. Regarding collective
identities, cultural and religious are included, while personal identities will include familial,
communal or group identities. By focusing on these topics, we further look into the way identities are
experienced and how the different aspects of identity play a role in the way relations are bound
together by the fishing industry.
Identities can be personal, but can also be shared by groups of people. There are different ways in
which identities can be understood. A religious realm is one of the cultural aspects of identity. In the
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