Derek Johnson

An important source of whatever success I have had in my career is the curiosity, creativity, and interest in others fostered by my anthropological training. Anthropology's openness to the world has enabled a career built on interdisciplinary connections, as shown by my diverse academic training and interests, and relationships, another form of connecting.

• PhD (Rural Studies and Anthropology), University of Guelph, 2002
• MA (Sociology and International Development Studies), University of Guelph, 1994
• BA (Social Anthropology and International Relations), University of Toronto, 1990

Research interests

• Small-scale fisheries
• Food, foodways, and food systems
• Political ecology of governance
• Social wellbeing
• Critical development studies

Research summary

My research is at the intersection of development, environmental and economic anthropology, political economy, and wellbeing. I have long been interested in how power suffuses human efforts to manage relations with unruly environments, with a focus on small-scale fisheries in Asia and Canada. In the past dozen years or so, I have been engaged in broad transdisciplinary collaborations on food from food systems, value chains, political ecology, feminist, and other perspectives. 

Research affiliations/groups

• Project Director, Dried Fish Matters
• Research Affiliate, Centre for Maritime Research
• Board Member, Dakshin Foundation
• Editor, Maritime Studies

• Thrift, Eric, Madu Galappaththi, Raktima Ghosh, Derek S. Johnson, Wae Win Khaing, Mahfuzar Rahman, and Ratana Chuenpagdee, eds. Dried Fish Matters. Exploring the Social Economy of Dried Fish. TBTI Global Book Series. TBTI Global, 2023.
• Derek Johnson, Benjamin Campion, Ratana Chuenpagdee, Jessie Varquez, Ansen Ward, and Milena Arias Schreiber. ‘Chapter 5. The Promise of Dried and Fermented Small Fish Processing to Enhance Food Security and Nutrition’. In Small Fish for Food Security and Nutrition, edited by Bavinck, Maarten, Ahern, Molly, Hapke, Holly M., Johnson, Derek S., Kjellevold, Marian, Kolding, Jeppe, Overå, Ragnhild, Schut, Thijs, and Franz, Nicole. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper 694. Rome: FAO, 2023: 77-94. 
• Leite, Marta C. F., Derek Stephen Johnson, Helen Ross, and Cristiana Simão Seixas. ‘Social Wellbeing, Values, and Identity among Caiçara Small-Scale Fishers in Southeastern Brazil’. Maritime Studies 22, no. 3 (12 August 2023): 36. 
• Belton, Ben, Derek Johnson, Eric Thrift, Jonah Olsen, Mostafa Hossain, and Shakuntala Thilsted. 2022. Dried Fish at the Intersection of Food Science, Economy, and Culture: A Global Survey. Fish and Fisheries. 
• Derek Johnson, Annie Lalancette, Mimi Lam, Marta Leite, and Sölmundur Karl Pálsson. (2018). The Value of Values for Understanding Transdisciplinary Approaches to Small-Scale Fisheries. In Small-scale fisheries governance: transdisciplinary analysis and practices. R. Chuenpagdee and S. Jentoft, eds: Springer.
• Gartaula, Hom, Kirit Patel, Derek Johnson, Rachana Devkota, Kamal Khadka, and Pashupati Chaudhary. (2016). From food security to food wellbeing: examining food security through the lens of food wellbeing in Nepal’s rapidly changing agrarian landscape. Agriculture and Human Values 34(3): 573-589. doi:10.1007/s10460-016-9740-1.
• Nireka Weeratunge, Christophe Béné, Rapti Siriwardane, Anthony Charles, Derek Johnson, Edward Allison, Prateep Nayak, Marie-Caroline Badjeck. (2014). Small-scale Fisheries through the Wellbeing Lens. Fish and Fisheries 15: 255-279. DOI: 10.1111/faf.12016.
• Micaela Trimble and Derek Johnson. (2013). Artisanal fishing as an undesirable way of life? The implications for governance of fishers’ wellbeing aspirations in coastal Uruguay. Marine Policy 37: 37-45.
• Derek Johnson. (2010). Institutional adaptation as a governability problem in fisheries: patron-client relationships in the Junagadh fishery, India. Fish and Fisheries 11(3): 264-277.
• Derek Johnson. (2006). Category, Narrative, and Value in the Governance of Small-scale Fisheries. Marine Policy 30: 747-756.

• 2011 - Students Honouring Teachers Award, University of Manitoba
• 2005 - Best South Asia PhD Dissertation Award, South Asia Council, Canadian Asian Studies Association

• 2023 to present - Support to various economic and social development activities related to dried fish through the Dried Fish Matters project
• 2021 to present - Residential School Ground survey support, Sandy Bay First Nation, Manitoba