Northern Fishing and Manuel DeLanda’s Flat Ontology

This publication presents a discussion of the article “Elements of Assemblage in Northern Informal Fisheries: Solidarity, Norms, Pink Salmon, Atlantic Salmon”, in which the authors (K.Y. Kotkin, A.M. Sergeev, V.M. Voronov, and V.V. Simonova) approach informal fisheries in the Murmansk region, employing Manuel DeLanda’s concept of horizontal ontology as an alternative to the traditional vertical structures that advocate a hierarchical understanding of the world and the exclusivity of humans. The authors argue that DeLanda’s horizontal ontology allows considering different-level components of fishing in two interdependent axes (“material – expressive” and “synthetic – variable”), and that the analysis of these axes lets us analyze the problem of the lack of positive attitude of local population toward the abundance of pink salmon, which is one of the most significant material components of the assemblage of informal fisheries in the Murmansk region. The discussion includes critical contributions: “Academic Fashion as a Conceptual Bricolage” (S.V. Sokolovskiy), “On Fish and Assemblages in the Murmansk Region” (N.S. Goncharov), and “DeLanda ‘Eats’ Salmon: The Kidnapping of Anthropology by a Supposedly ‘New’ Social Ontology” (A.G. Kuznetsov), as well as the response of the authors of the original article (“Figures and Background, or on the Logic of the Growth of Reviews”).