Innovation is not a smooth process. In shrimp aquaculture technical innovations comes in bursts triggered by losses and booms sustained by profits. Close relations among firms, farmers and mobile experts within Thailand and beyond enable innovation cycles.
Shrimp farmers in Thailand and Mexico must endlessly deal with marketing masquerading as advice. Their clubs and social networks, in addition to being sources of innovation, help edit misleading information.
Innovation does not stop at the pond edge. Each of the many links in the chain from feeding shrimp to eating shrimp is potentially a leverage point for sustainability. Innovation in business models thus may be as important as technological advances.
Selected Publications
Lebel L, P. Garden, A. Luers, D. Manuel-Navarrete, and D. H. Giap. (2016). Knowledge and innovation relationships in the shrimp industry in Thailand and Mexico. PNAS. (Abstract)
Lebel L, Mungkung R, Gheewala S. H, and Lebel P. (2010). Innovation cycles, niches and sustainability in the shrimp aquaculture industry in Thailand. Environmental Science & Policy. 13:291-302. (Abstract)
Lebel L, P. Lebel, Garden P, Giap D. H, Khrutmuang S, and Nakayama S. (2008). Places, chains and plates: governing transitions in the shrimp aquaculture production-consumption system. Globalizations. 5:211-226. (Abstract)
Deutsch L, Gräslund S, Folke C, Troell M, Huitric M, Kautsky N, and Lebel L. (2007). Feeding aquaculture growth through globalization: exploitation of marine ecosystems for fishmeal. Global Environmental Change. 17:238-249. (Abstract)
Lebel L, Tri N. H, Saengnoree A, Pasong S, Buatama U, and Thoa L. K. (2002). Industrial transformation and shrimp aquaculture in Thailand and Vietnam: pathways to ecological, social and economic sustainability? Ambio. 31:311-323. (Abstract)
Unit for Social and Environmental Research (USER) 