Uncommon Property describes Canadian West Coast fisheries in the 1980s, focusing on the social and economic structure of the industry. It is the product of a three-year research project conducted by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

Part 1 is concerned with the history of the industry, the role of the federal and provincial governments, international markets, significant differences in raw fish markets and their importance for the fish processing sector, and the international context for British Columbia fisheries.

Part 2 considers the labour process. This includes chapters on shoreworkers and fishers, with descriptions of their characteristics and working conditions. It also examines their history of organization, the special place of native Indians in the fishery, and the perspective of history by the Union of Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union Newspaper.

Part 3 considers fishing communities: their viability when they are dependent on a diminishing resource and their responses to resource depletion.

This study offers readers unique insights into the complex problems of fishing industries in which competing interests are attempting to find solutions to unresolvable contradictions.