DFM Kerala 2021 Oral history interview guide

  1. Organizational structure
    • What are the organizational structures of the dried fish economy in Kerala?
    • How have these changed over time?
  2. Division of labour
    • What are the divisions of labor (including gender divisions of labor) within and across nodes?
  3. Key actors
    • Who are the key actors at each node?
    • How are their activities (or businesses) organized (e.g., paid labor, unpaid labor, self-employed)?
    • How are different groups of actors (e.g., processors, traders) linked to this economy?
    • What are the key social, cultural, economic, technological, and institutional factors that underlie and define the way different groups of actors/workers are linked to the economy (e.g., credit relations, wages, unpaid labor, social relations/obligations)?
    • How do these factors mediate change over time?
  4. Households
    • In what ways are households connected to dried fish value chains?
    • How have these relations changed over time?
    • In what ways does household labor contribute to the structure and functioning of the dried fish economy?
    • What specific roles do women and girl workers play in the dried fish economy?
    • In what ways does their productive and reproductive labor support fish value chain organization and function?
    • In what ways do social and cultural norms influence the way they are linked to dried fish value chains?
  5. Women in the dried fish economy
    • What specific challenges do women dried fish workers (processors and traders) face in their work within the dried fish economy?
    • Are there potential innovations or interventions that could support their economic activities/livelihoods?