Moor, Tine De

This paper investigates the role of small-scale fishers’ organizations, specifically the cofradías in Spain and the prud’homies in France, in fostering environmental literacy among their members. By examining archival records, we illuminate how these organizations utilize the dense, multiplex social ties within their communities to intertwine environmental stewardship with other normative systems, such as religious practices. This integration ensures that environmental rules do not stand alone but are supported by a broader spectrum of communal norms, thereby enhancing their enforceability and acceptance. The empirical analysis reveals that such an approach not only strengthens compliance with environmental regulations but also plays a crucial role in the socialization process of the fishers, embedding environmental consciousness into the fabric of their daily lives. The paper argues that leveraging the multifaceted relationships within communities can significantly increase environmental literacy by ensuring that ecological conservation becomes a communal responsibility rather than an external imposition. Through this lens, the study contributes to the understanding of environmental literacy, proposing that the success of environmental policies may hinge on their ability to align with existing social and cultural frameworks. By extrapolating from the experiences of the cofradías and the prud’homies, we propose policy solutions that capitalize on the concept of environmental literacy, suggesting that future efforts should focus on integrating environmental objectives with the pre-existing values and norms of communities. This approach, we argue, can enhance the effectiveness of environmental policies and foster a more sustainable and ecologically conscious society.

The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in tandem with the Institutional Grammar is a promising way to speed up the process of breaking down and categorizing institutional accounts, advancing the analysis of institutional arrangements. However, the application of LLMs comes with challenges of its own, especially when working with data - such as historical datasets - that are divergent from the data that the model was trained on. Applying the open-source Phi-3-mini model, this paper assesses how commoners historically managed environmental resources through self-governance, with a focus on the rules they developed over time to address environmental limitations. By applying grammatical and content-based analysis, we will assess the environmental literacy embedded in these regulations and evaluate their effectiveness in translating that literacy into actionable governance. At the same time, we will highlight the opportunities, pitfalls, and limitations to be reckoned with when applying LLMs to historical data.