A Sea of Relationships: Investigating Relational Wellbeing in a Growing Blue Economy

The global drive for sustainable development increasingly recognises the entwined nature of environmental sustainability and human wellbeing - a healthy environment cannot exist without 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 emergence of new industries into the ocean, which is increasing the intensity and diversity of interactions among actors interacting with the marine environment. At the same time, power is a taboo subject in marine policy yet plays a key role in shaping access to marine resources and decision-making processes. Hence, research seeking to gain an understanding of the entwined nature of wellbeing and power - and how these are shaped by governance - is timely.
This thesis speaks to the 'wellbeing' and 'power' gaps through drawing on and contributing to the theory of relational wellbeing. Relational wellbeing captures the critical, yet understudied role that social relationships play in influencing wellbeing, including relationships of power and social structures. Through the lens of relational wellbeing, this thesis aims to understand how people's relationships - with governance actors, their community, and the marine environment - shape their wellbeing. Methodologically, this PhD employs qualitative methods centred around discourse analysis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews with diverse stakeholders to understand how their relationships matter to their wellbeing. In doing this, it aims to contribute a more nuanced understanding of wellbeing for policy purposes, while theoretically contributing to scholarship on wellbeing, power and governance.