The Political Economy of South African Trout Fisheries

I analyze the evolution of trout recreational fisheries with the objective of identifying possible factors that might be driving current controversies in biodiversity policy reforms on the governance of alien and invasive species. Findings suggest that trout species have attained a cultural status, which makes it difficult to have them eradicated without facing stiff resistance from the trout-dependent sector. Results suggested that a process of leisure augmentation through environmental greed underpinned the introduction and continuance of spreading trout. With this process came also the development of a complex set of institutions that protected trout since they served an honorific role. My findings also suggest that the Ayresian thesis that all ceremonial systems are past-binding could be relaxed because ceremonial interests also envision alternative futures that can entrench and further protect ceremonial systems. To that end, these ceremonial interests facilitate path-breaking, but harmful institutional change. I extend Paul Dale Bush's concept of institutional spaces by assigning faces to the concept, resulting in expansion of possible institutional adjustment configurations. I find that this reorganization of Bush's concept tells the historical evolution of institutions of the leisure class in South Africa in a more dynamic way.