Implications of legal pluralism for socio-technical transition studies – scrutinizing the ascendancy of the ring seine fishery in India

Abstract This paper considers the contribution of legal pluralism scholarship to the field of socio-technical transition studies. Making use of a case study on the changeover to ring seine fishing in India, it pays particular attention to the implications of legal pluralism – or the co-existence of multiple legal systems in a societal field – for the stability of such transitions. Ring seine fishing developed in particular niches in the 1970s to spread swiftly throughout the subcontinent, dividing the fisher population into fervent protagonists and antagonists. Arguing that socio-technical innovations are often contested and that rival parties make use of alternative legal systems to advance their rights, the paper suggests that so-called regimes function as arenas for deliberating and battling alternative futures in fishing. Rather than creating stability for a particular socio-technical transition, such regimes may actually mask deep socio-legal divides.