Paper short abstract:

Are coastal communities left in a pre-industrialized state of development or could a post-industrial perspective make way for new understandings of coastal communities?

Paper long abstract:

The traditional perspective on the state of rural and coastal areas propose that industrialization centralized development in urban areas, and thus, the coastal and rural areas were left in either status quo or in depopulation and backwards development. This paper explores another perspective. Using Danish fishing and coastal communities as the main examples, the paper investigates a thesis of a post-industrial situation, in which new technologies and infrastructure actually have created a new reality and possibilities for fishers and coastal communities. A high level of technology on boats and vessels and the increasing access to trucks, roads and railroads created a new European market for fresh high value fish, that gave rise to a new and highly specialized fleet. The post-industrial perspective challenges the well-rooted image of the traditional fishing communities and traditional small scale fishers. If there is a new post-industrial fisheries, can we still talk about the traditional communities? Should the industrial fishing fleet then, be seen as the most modern or maybe instead as the dinosaurs of fishing?