Innovative Fisheries Management (IFM-AAU) Denmark

IFM-AAU is an Aalborg University Research Centre affiliated to the Department of Development and Planning under the Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine. IFM-AAU specialises in social scientific research and advisory services in fisheries management and coastal community development. IFM-AAU has a particular focus on questions of governance within an ecosystem-based approach to marine management. The basis for IFM-AAU’s work is the reciprocal relationship where advisory needs both guide and are informed by research and capacity building activities. IFM-AAU’s current research interests focus on i) fisheries co-management, ii) the social aspects of the knowledge base for marine management, iii) social impact assessments, and iv) the regional perspective on coastal community development.

In the research area of fisheries co-management IFM-AAU focuses on two aspects: 1) governance and co-management, and 2) the knowledge base for co-management. In its studies of governance and co-management in relation to fisheries management systems IFM-AAU moves the concept of institutions beyond the classical institutional approaches in economics and political science to also including – to some extent along the lines of the so-called new institutionalisms - cultural and social structures acknowledging that institutions are dynamic and constantly changing.

Key Personnel

Jesper Raakjær

Professor and IFM-AAU director, PhD (Institutional economics) from Aalborg University in 1992. He has been employed at the IFM-AAU since its foundation in 1994 and was appointed Research Professor in 1999 and AAU Professor from 1 January 2008. He has been involved in several international research projects focussing on institutional aspects of fisheries management including eco-system approach, user/stakeholder-participation, legitimacy and compliance both in a developed and developing country context. In relation to EU research projects and studies he has acted in the role as Danish project coordinator or project leader, where his present major task is to head the governance components of the MEFEPO project.