Assessing the social wellbeing of Northern Ireland’s fishing society using a three-dimensional approach Easkey Britton a,n , Sarah Coulthard b a University of Ulster Address: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine, BT52 1SA, UK b Northumbria University Address: School of Arts and Social sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK article info Article history: Received 6 March 2012 Received in revised form 26 March 2012 Accepted 4 April 2012 Available online 26 April 2012 Keywords: Fisheries Social wellbeing Northern Ireland abstract The concept of ‘wellbeing’ has received growing interest in policy domains in the UK, and inter- nationally, as a multi-dimensional approach to understanding and measuring social progress and development. Policy makers and scientists alike are debating the potential of wellbeing to deliver a people-centred, and holistic, analysis of what matters to people in terms of the quality of life people pursue and are able to achieve. There is also growing interest in how the concept of wellbeing might be applied to fisheries, especially in terms of deepening assessment of the ways in which decline in the fisheries sector is affecting fishing-dependent families, and the wider community. This paper applies a three-dimensional wellbeing framework and methodology to gain insight into the wellbeing of fishing society in Northern Ireland, a region that has faced substantial decline in its fisheries over the past 100 years. A three-dimensional approach considers material, relational and cognitive dimensions; putting resources, relationships and subjective reflections on life satisfaction together as a whole assessment. All three dimensions are important for a full assessment of wellbeing. Following an overview of the methodology used and data collected, the paper then assesses the extent to which a three-dimensional well-being approach can provide useful insights for sustainable fisheries policy in Northern Ireland. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction —Wellbeing as a bridging concept in social science fisheries research In the midst of continued crisis in fisheries management, fishing societies around the world have found themselves posi- tioned between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, in many regions, they face diminished catch and income as stocks con- tinue to dwindle; on the other, they must deal with a set of increasingly restrictive policy approaches to reduce fishing effort and alleviate pressure on an over-utilised resource [1]. The quest for sustainability in, and a future for, the fisheries sector often places a heavy burden on today’s fishers and their families, who struggle to cope with the dual pressures of less fish and more management [2,3]. However, despite these hardships, and the central role that fishers clearly play in fisheries management, social aspects of fisheries remain secondary to policy concerns for the marine resource and ecological functioning [2,4–6]. The phrase ‘without the fish, there is no fishery’ is often heard in cross-disciplinary debates, as a rationale for the prioritization of the marine resource. Whilst this argument is understandable, it omits some fundamental considerations. How are these costs of sustainability management borne out in fishing communities, are people affected differently with some being better equipped to cope than others, and are there social, political and moral limits to the pressures experienced by fishing communities that should be taken into account in management decision-making? As Symes and Phillipson argue [2], the prioritization of inter-generational justice over intra-generational equity (the fair distribution of benefits and costs in present day fisheries) underpins a growing neglect of today’s fisher in fisheries policy. In recent years however, bridges have been built between social and natural fisheries scientists under a common under- standing that, if healthy fish stocks can be realized in the future, viable fishing communities who are able, and who still want, to fish them are also desired. As Jentoft argues, ‘‘viable fish stocks require viable fishing communities’’ [7] stressing the role that communities have to play in effective co-management. With the aim of strengthening the impact and visibility of fisheries social science, several ‘agendas’ for research have been published, which set out arguments as to where social scientists should concentrate their efforts [8,2,3]. Elements of these agendas include expanding focus from the individualised behaviours of fishers to place greater attention to ‘community’, and the complex relationships Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol Marine Policy 0308-597X/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.04.011 n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: easkey.britton@wellcoast.org, easkey.britton@gmail.com (E. Britton), sarah.coulthard@northumbria.ac.uk (S. Coulthard). Marine Policy 37 (2013) 28–36