{"id":{"repo_id":"exeter","oai_identifier":"oai:figshare.com:article/31902634"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/exeter/oai:figshare.com:article/31902634","repository":{"repo_id":"exeter","name":"University of Exeter","base_url":"https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai"},"display":{"title":"A Sea of Relationships: Investigating Relational Wellbeing in UK Marine Governance","abstract":"The global drive for sustainable development increasingly recognises the entwined nature of environmental sustainability and human wellbeing – a healthy environment is required for a thriving humanity and vice versa. While appreciation of the multidimensionality of wellbeing is growing in marine governance, these concepts have yet to be fully employed in relation to the blue economy. The blue economy involves the expansion of existing and emergent new industries into the ocean, which is increasing the diversity of interactions among actors operating within and around the marine environment, intensifying the impacts of power relations. Power plays a key role in shaping access to marine resources and participatory decision-making processes yet, at the same time, is often obscured in marine policy. Hence, research seeking to gain an understanding of the entwined nature of wellbeing and power in marine governance is timely. This thesis speaks to the ‘wellbeing-power gap’ through relational wellbeing. Relational wellbeing captures the critical, yet understudied role that social relationships play in influencing wellbeing, including the ways they mediate power and social structures. This thesis develops a framework for relational wellbeing, accounting for how people’s relationships with governance actors and institutions, their community and the marine environment, shape their wellbeing. Methodologically, this PhD employs qualitative methods centred around discourse analysis of UK marine policy documents and semi-structured interviews with diverse actors (policy actors, residents, fishermen and tour operators) to understand how their networks matter to their wellbeing and how they shape marine governance. It takes a multi-level analysis approach, including a policy analysis and interviews with key informants implementing marine policy, alongside two case studies examining perceptions of relational wellbeing among actors in coastal communities (e.g., fishermen, residents, tour operators) in the Southwest of England. The thesis contributes important empirical understanding of wellbeing in the growing blue economy, while also developing theory relating to wellbeing, power and governance. Though existing scholarship has found that a multitude of relationships are fundamental to human wellbeing, it has yet to bring these together under a framework that accounts for how these different relationships intersect. Through developing the concept of relational wellbeing, this thesis finds that actor’s relationships with discourses, governance, community and the environment shape their experiences of wellbeing. It finds that discourses are perceived to portray fishermen in a negative way, which undermines their relational wellbeing in regard to policy actors and the wider public. In terms of governance, it finds that relational wellbeing between actors living in coastal communities and those working in formal governance (i.e. those developing and implementing policy) is shaped by past experiences of governance processes. Relational wellbeing at the community level was complex, with relationships across different levels interacting with each other in complex ways to shape community life for different actors. Finally, relationships with the environment were diverse and influenced by discourses, governance and community relations. Different stakeholders considered environmental stewardship in various ways – some of which clashed with one another. The findings presented here suggest that, for policy seeking to account for wellbeing in environmental initiatives, it is pivotal to understand how people’s relationships – including power relations – influence their pursuit and experiences of wellbeing.<p></p>","abstract_html":"The global drive for sustainable development increasingly recognises the entwined nature of environmental sustainability and human wellbeing – a healthy environment is required for a thriving humanity and vice versa. While appreciation of the multidimensionality of wellbeing is growing in marine governance, these concepts have yet to be fully employed in relation to the blue economy. The blue economy involves the expansion of existing and emergent new industries into the ocean, which is increasing the diversity of interactions among actors operating within and around the marine environment, intensifying the impacts of power relations. Power plays a key role in shaping access to marine resources and participatory decision-making processes yet, at the same time, is often obscured in marine policy. Hence, research seeking to gain an understanding of the entwined nature of wellbeing and power in marine governance is timely. This thesis speaks to the ‘wellbeing-power gap’ through relational wellbeing. Relational wellbeing captures the critical, yet understudied role that social relationships play in influencing wellbeing, including the ways they mediate power and social structures. This thesis develops a framework for relational wellbeing, accounting for how people’s relationships with governance actors and institutions, their community and the marine environment, shape their wellbeing. Methodologically, this PhD employs qualitative methods centred around discourse analysis of UK marine policy documents and semi-structured interviews with diverse actors (policy actors, residents, fishermen and tour operators) to understand how their networks matter to their wellbeing and how they shape marine governance. It takes a multi-level analysis approach, including a policy analysis and interviews with key informants implementing marine policy, alongside two case studies examining perceptions of relational wellbeing among actors in coastal communities (e.g., fishermen, residents, tour operators) in the Southwest of England. The thesis contributes important empirical understanding of wellbeing in the growing blue economy, while also developing theory relating to wellbeing, power and governance. Though existing scholarship has found that a multitude of relationships are fundamental to human wellbeing, it has yet to bring these together under a framework that accounts for how these different relationships intersect. Through developing the concept of relational wellbeing, this thesis finds that actor’s relationships with discourses, governance, community and the environment shape their experiences of wellbeing. It finds that discourses are perceived to portray fishermen in a negative way, which undermines their relational wellbeing in regard to policy actors and the wider public. In terms of governance, it finds that relational wellbeing between actors living in coastal communities and those working in formal governance (i.e. those developing and implementing policy) is shaped by past experiences of governance processes. Relational wellbeing at the community level was complex, with relationships across different levels interacting with each other in complex ways to shape community life for different actors. Finally, relationships with the environment were diverse and influenced by discourses, governance and community relations. Different stakeholders considered environmental stewardship in various ways – some of which clashed with one another. The findings presented here suggest that, for policy seeking to account for wellbeing in environmental initiatives, it is pivotal to understand how people’s relationships – including power relations – influence their pursuit and experiences of wellbeing.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sophia Buchanan Barlow (21043730)"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-03-05T00:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-03-05T00:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:33:37Z","subjects":["Human wellbeing","Marine governance","Participation","Fisheries","Coastal communities"],"languages":[],"rights":["All rights reserved","Embargoed"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10779/exe.31902634.v1"],"render_values":[{"text":"10779/exe.31902634.v1","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sophia Buchanan Barlow (21043730)"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2026-03-05T00:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/A_Sea_of_Relationships_Investigating_Relational_Wellbeing_in_UK_Marine_Governance/31902634"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Human wellbeing","Marine governance","Participation","Fisheries","Coastal communities"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["All rights reserved","Embargoed"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10779/exe.31902634.v1"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The global drive for sustainable development increasingly recognises the entwined nature of environmental sustainability and human wellbeing – a healthy environment is required for a thriving humanity and vice versa. While appreciation of the multidimensionality of wellbeing is growing in marine governance, these concepts have yet to be fully employed in relation to the blue economy. The blue economy involves the expansion of existing and emergent new industries into the ocean, which is increasing the diversity of interactions among actors operating within and around the marine environment, intensifying the impacts of power relations. Power plays a key role in shaping access to marine resources and participatory decision-making processes yet, at the same time, is often obscured in marine policy. Hence, research seeking to gain an understanding of the entwined nature of wellbeing and power in marine governance is timely. This thesis speaks to the ‘wellbeing-power gap’ through relational wellbeing. Relational wellbeing captures the critical, yet understudied role that social relationships play in influencing wellbeing, including the ways they mediate power and social structures. This thesis develops a framework for relational wellbeing, accounting for how people’s relationships with governance actors and institutions, their community and the marine environment, shape their wellbeing. Methodologically, this PhD employs qualitative methods centred around discourse analysis of UK marine policy documents and semi-structured interviews with diverse actors (policy actors, residents, fishermen and tour operators) to understand how their networks matter to their wellbeing and how they shape marine governance. It takes a multi-level analysis approach, including a policy analysis and interviews with key informants implementing marine policy, alongside two case studies examining perceptions of relational wellbeing among actors in coastal communities (e.g., fishermen, residents, tour operators) in the Southwest of England. The thesis contributes important empirical understanding of wellbeing in the growing blue economy, while also developing theory relating to wellbeing, power and governance. Though existing scholarship has found that a multitude of relationships are fundamental to human wellbeing, it has yet to bring these together under a framework that accounts for how these different relationships intersect. Through developing the concept of relational wellbeing, this thesis finds that actor’s relationships with discourses, governance, community and the environment shape their experiences of wellbeing. It finds that discourses are perceived to portray fishermen in a negative way, which undermines their relational wellbeing in regard to policy actors and the wider public. In terms of governance, it finds that relational wellbeing between actors living in coastal communities and those working in formal governance (i.e. those developing and implementing policy) is shaped by past experiences of governance processes. Relational wellbeing at the community level was complex, with relationships across different levels interacting with each other in complex ways to shape community life for different actors. Finally, relationships with the environment were diverse and influenced by discourses, governance and community relations. Different stakeholders considered environmental stewardship in various ways – some of which clashed with one another. The findings presented here suggest that, for policy seeking to account for wellbeing in environmental initiatives, it is pivotal to understand how people’s relationships – including power relations – influence their pursuit and experiences of wellbeing.<p></p>"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Sea of Relationships: Investigating Relational Wellbeing in UK Marine Governance"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Sophia Buchanan Barlow (21043730)"],"dc:date":["2026-03-05T00:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["The global drive for sustainable development increasingly recognises the entwined nature of environmental sustainability and human wellbeing – a healthy environment is required for a thriving humanity and vice versa. While appreciation of the multidimensionality of wellbeing is growing in marine governance, these concepts have yet to be fully employed in relation to the blue economy. The blue economy involves the expansion of existing and emergent new industries into the ocean, which is increasing the diversity of interactions among actors operating within and around the marine environment, intensifying the impacts of power relations. Power plays a key role in shaping access to marine resources and participatory decision-making processes yet, at the same time, is often obscured in marine policy. Hence, research seeking to gain an understanding of the entwined nature of wellbeing and power in marine governance is timely. This thesis speaks to the ‘wellbeing-power gap’ through relational wellbeing. Relational wellbeing captures the critical, yet understudied role that social relationships play in influencing wellbeing, including the ways they mediate power and social structures. This thesis develops a framework for relational wellbeing, accounting for how people’s relationships with governance actors and institutions, their community and the marine environment, shape their wellbeing. Methodologically, this PhD employs qualitative methods centred around discourse analysis of UK marine policy documents and semi-structured interviews with diverse actors (policy actors, residents, fishermen and tour operators) to understand how their networks matter to their wellbeing and how they shape marine governance. It takes a multi-level analysis approach, including a policy analysis and interviews with key informants implementing marine policy, alongside two case studies examining perceptions of relational wellbeing among actors in coastal communities (e.g., fishermen, residents, tour operators) in the Southwest of England. The thesis contributes important empirical understanding of wellbeing in the growing blue economy, while also developing theory relating to wellbeing, power and governance. Though existing scholarship has found that a multitude of relationships are fundamental to human wellbeing, it has yet to bring these together under a framework that accounts for how these different relationships intersect. Through developing the concept of relational wellbeing, this thesis finds that actor’s relationships with discourses, governance, community and the environment shape their experiences of wellbeing. It finds that discourses are perceived to portray fishermen in a negative way, which undermines their relational wellbeing in regard to policy actors and the wider public. In terms of governance, it finds that relational wellbeing between actors living in coastal communities and those working in formal governance (i.e. those developing and implementing policy) is shaped by past experiences of governance processes. Relational wellbeing at the community level was complex, with relationships across different levels interacting with each other in complex ways to shape community life for different actors. Finally, relationships with the environment were diverse and influenced by discourses, governance and community relations. Different stakeholders considered environmental stewardship in various ways – some of which clashed with one another. The findings presented here suggest that, for policy seeking to account for wellbeing in environmental initiatives, it is pivotal to understand how people’s relationships – including power relations – influence their pursuit and experiences of wellbeing.<p></p>"],"dc:identifier":["10779/exe.31902634.v1"],"dc:relation":["https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/A_Sea_of_Relationships_Investigating_Relational_Wellbeing_in_UK_Marine_Governance/31902634"],"dc:rights":["All rights reserved","Embargoed"],"dc:subject":["Human wellbeing","Marine governance","Participation","Fisheries","Coastal communities"],"dc:title":["A Sea of Relationships: Investigating Relational Wellbeing in UK Marine Governance"],"dc:type":["Text","Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:33:37Z"}