There is 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 (Coulthard et al. 2011). This study applies a three-dimensional wellbeing framework and methodology, adapted from the ESRC research group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) University of Bath, to gain insight into the wellbeing of fishing households in Northern Ireland, in particular the impacts of changing access to fish on wellbeing. The three-dimensional approach considers material, relational and subjective dimensions and the study illustrates the importance of all three dimensions for a full assessment of wellbeing (McGregor 2007, McGregor and Sumner 2010). In light of EU policy change and fisheries decline, the central aims of this thesis are to explore how changing access to fisheries affects the wellbeing of fishers and their families and the coping strategies fishing households and individuals use in response to this change. This thesis presents empirical data on wellbeing from a person-centred perspective. That is, how men and women in fishing communities define their wellbeing and what they value most for a good life. The study presents findings on the resources fishing households have access to and the relationships that influence fishing behaviour. The findings emphasise the importance of embedding our understanding of wellbeing within the enabling environment - the social structures and relational processes that can enable or constrain how people are able to achieve wellbeing. This thesis shows that the there are multiple factors driving change in NI fishing society, in particular the reform of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, the growing environmental discourse within fisheries management and the economic recession. The study highlights the connection between fisheries and the wider social and economic health of the region and the importance of understanding the local context. Despite the close proximity of the fishing communities in this study, the findings show local variations and heterogeneity between communities and even within, which supports the argument for scalable solutions to fisheries management issues. This thesis highlights the important wellbeing functions of a fishing way of life as well as the increasing demand to adapt to change and the consequences of adaptation and coping strategies for wellbeing. The outcomes of changing access to fish for wellbeing are multi-dimensional and include economic insecurity, health and safety issues, changing relationships (at household, community and State level), in particular, frustration with the current governance system as a result of a lack of voice in decision-making processes. The thesis concludes with key policy recommendations, sign-posting a pathway to wellbeing and sustainable fisheries governance.

A relatively extensive body of research exists into the concept of intergenerational transmission of trauma among survivors of holocaust and the Vietnam War. However, this information is lacking for the Acholi people in northern Uganda who have suffered over twenty five years of war. The present study set out to explore intergenerational transmission of war related knowledge from mother to child in a post conflict northern Ugandan context. In particular, the role of mother's own experiences, which in an African context appears to be a primary source of this information for children. Focus groups were conducted with 65 mothers in three selected villages in the Gulu district. A one to one semi-structured interview was also conducted with five mothers from Northern Uganda residing in five different boroughs of London. Eight hundred and thirty one children aged 8-16 years from five selected primary schools in the Gulu and the Nwoya districts completed drawings, essays, a Ladder Scale, African Youth Psychosocial Assessment and information check questionnaires. Results showed that mothers share their war experiences with their children and children are curious to know about the war. Those who do not share their experiences with their children appear to do this to protect their self image; to cope with their own traumatic experiences and due to lack of skills to handle children 's questions. Findings also showed that children are aware of war and have developed the concept of war and peace through a wider social-ecological system. The transmission of traumatic war related information may have long lasting impacts on children's adjustment and mental health. Further examination of the role played by mothers in Uganda and amongst refugee Gulu mothers who have relocated to different countries is urgently required so that appropriate support can be offered.

The transition into adulthood has been identified as a key life event for people with learning disabilities, entailing the departure of services which are well known and entry into unfamiliar systems. Social support has been conceived as having a stress buffering role. It has also been contended that social support is itself important to the mental health of people. It was hypothesised that the role of social support in the transition period would be important, particularly as the transition process itself may change the structure of the support network around the individual. Traditional concepts of social support have been criticised as lacking conceptual clarity and of being of limited ecological value. They do not take into account the context of relationships which are entailed and the ambiguous nature of support. Moreover, no studies have examined the views of people with learning disabilities about their experiences of social support. This study aimed to use in-depth interviews to explore the views of people with learning disabilities about their experiences of social support. Six young adults with mild to moderate learning disabilities were interviewed about their experiences of leaving school and the support that they received at that time. A grounded theory methodology was used to code the transcripts. The analysis identified various challenges that occur during the transition years. It also delineated the interplay between self-reliant coping responses and social support coping strategies which participants used to respond to these challenges, with particular attention being drawn to the different pathways to attaining social support and the distinction between unsought social support and initiating support interactions. The intervening conditions of relationships and locations were related through this process. The properties of relationships were discussed, as were the important contextual factors of control and identity. Strategies used to manage social relationships were related both in terms of maintaining positive examples but also in terms of managing conflict within those relationships. The theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Britain has a super-diverse population, characterised by multiple dimensions of socio-cultural and immigration-related diversity. There has been increasing recognition that gender is a key variable in the migration experience. Studies examining the needs of new migrant women have identified lack of English, difficulty understanding British systems and lack of adequate childcare as barriers to accessing services. Both local and transnational networks may be important sources of support but whether they are available and how they are used to mobilize social capital remains unclear. This thesis aims to further an understanding of new migrant women's social networks in mobilising social capital. Qualitative in-depth interviews were carried out with 23 new migrant mothers in socio-economically deprived zones of an inner-London area. All participants spoke limited English at the time of interview. Elements of grounded theory influenced the data collection and analysis. A novel approach of post-interview follow-up was used which enabled a period of extended contact with participants. This provided additional data on encounters with services that indicated how and why local social networks, rather than transnational networks, impacted most on opportunities to mobilise social capital. A model of Goal Directed Activity is proposed from this analysis, highlighting the time and effort women invested in addressing the needs of their families, across private and public spaces. A typology of networks is developed, which is used to explore the differing characteristics of participants' networks. The analysis demonstrates that local networks with others who also had low resources provided support to get by. A strong tie, however, to someone with better resources was necessary to mobilise sufficient social capital to get ahead. An understanding of new migrant women's everyday experiences and social networks may help policy makers when looking to improve the interface with service providers.

Discourses surrounding the debate on asylum-seekers and refugees continue to be a polemical and topical issue in the UK and other Western democracies. This thesis investigates the meaning of home and belonging from the perspective of members of the refugee community in Belfast. Individuals who seek asylum in a place of safety leave their homes and homelands for a variety of reasons. I focus on the experiential challenges faced by members of the local refugee community following their arrival in a new and unfamiliar environment. An asylum-seeker is required to register his or her intentions with the relevant authorities within a specified time limit. Following an initial screening interview, an individual seeking asylum is provided with emergency accommodation, and shortly afterward attends a substantive interview with UK Border Agency immigration specialists. My research follows the lives of a number of asylumseekers as they progress through the asylum system. Some of them receive their 'papers' and are accepted as refugees with an initial five year Limited Leave to Remain status. Becoming a refugee comes as a great relief but concurrently brings a whole new set of challenges. On the other hand, for the many asylum-seekers who are refused refugee status, there is the uncertainty of the appeals process, fresh claims, further meetings with solicitors and other advisors, and occasionally a descent into destitution with no recourse to funds. I look at some of the coping strategies employed by this heterogeneous group of displaced individuals. There exists a lack of well-established diasporic communities in Northern Ireland. What is it that makes a person 'feel at home?' My thesis explores the meaning of displacement and emplacement by focussing on asylum-seekers and refugees as they negotiate and perform the long process of belonging to something tangible in local society.

This thesis examines the history of black British Caribbean migrants in Cuba during the early twentieth century. It centres on their experience of social and racial discrimination within Cuban society, and how this was influenced by the historical legacy of black fear in Cuba and the social, political, and economic changes the country experienced from 1898 to 1938 (i.e., foreign intervention, social and political revolts, and economic depressions). The racial, ethnic, and identity dynamics in the interaction between the migrants, Cuban society, and the consular representatives are examined in detail. The study avoids the generalisations that are prevalent in the historiography, and contributes with new insights into the history of this migration through its emphasis on different migration patterns, the experiences of the various islanders, and the complex identity politics and social practices of resistance, adjustment, and accommodation in which the migrants were involved The thesis looks at the triangular relation between the black British Antilleans, Cuban society, and the representatives of the British Empire at various levels, and reveals the otherwise unacknowledged agency of the migrants in gaining consular support. The complex debates on race, ethnicity, identity, and nation arising from this case study are of prime relevance not only for the understanding of migration processes in Caribbean societies, but also for the study of nation formation in Cuban society and British colonial and imperial history, At the same time, these debates are connected to wider issues concerning the relationship between race and nation, and racism and migration in the Caribbean past and present. The study is of an interdisciplinary nature and combines archival and documentary research with interviews, ethnographic data, and anthropological and sociological literature.

The Kalbelias, known also as Jogi Naths, live in Rajasthan, North India. Their traditional occupation is snake charming and until about forty years ago they were nomadic. Nowadays nearly all have permanent homes but continue to utilise their tents for economic and social purposes. This thesis describes their present way of life, their adaptation from nomadism to semi-sedentarism, their traditional work as snake charmers and their economic strategies of begging and other subsidiary occupations. The Kalbelias' religious orientation as Naths and life events such as marriage, death, inheritance and their system of dispute settlement which serves as a cohesive force for the sub-caste, are described. Pastoral and non-pastoral nomads are found in most parts of the world, and are capable of Infinite adaptation according to the circumstances in which they find themselves. As snake charmers, the Kalbelias have a symbiotic relationship with the other peoples around them and also form a continuing link through time.

This research explores the journey of a group of Somali refugee women and presents an account of their experiences before, during and after migration to England. The study also aimed to explore the strategies used by the women in adapting to their new environment, the aim being to make recommendations that might inform policy and service provision. The original impetus for this study came from meeting and tutoring Somali refugee women who had strong views about the acute needs of their fellow women and what needed to be explored.

This doctoral study discusses emergent worlds of Nigerian migrants in Greece. Music making is a key aspect of the ways in which these worlds are formed, experienced and manifested; thus, it is a powerful means to understand Nigerian presences in Greece. My ethnographic accounts draw from fieldwork I conducted for a period of fifteen months, from May 2012 to September 2013, during which I followed musical activities among Nigerians mainly in the capital city of Athens, but also in the Greek island of Santorini. This work concerns musical practices that shape and reflect experiences of belonging and community making. My preliminary focus is on Nigerian-initiated Pentecostal congregations in Athens, which I discuss in relation to gospel music making and the ways in which particular ways of practising faith, in both musical and spiritual terms, establish tight-knit communities of belonging and broader networks of such communities among Nigerian Christians in the diaspora. Some music ministers, as the musicians working for Nigerian Pentecostal congregations are called, appear to make music for 'sacred' settings exclusively, while others extend their endeavours to professional music contexts outside church. This work, therefore, also focuses upon a second arena in which Nigerian musicians engage in the 'secular' realm, where they collaborate with primarily Greek musicians. For those musicians whose activities span both gospel music making and secular music genres and environments, performance qualities and aspects of sociability between worlds in and outside the church seem to overlap, whilst generating negotiable, ongoing reconstructions of the socio-musical worlds in which musicians situate themselves and develop senses of belonging. Even in their collaborations with Greek musicians and audiences of diverse backgrounds, however, a degree of Nigerian-ness is evident in performances. This Nigerian-ness manifests itself through 'participatory music making' and 'music ministration', two modes of being musically that typify belongings in the sacred realm and are carried into the secular world through the musical practices of Nigerian musicians whose musical background lies within Nigerian Pentecostal Christianity.

This thesis examines the similarities and differences between exile experiences of Internal Displaced People and Cypriot refugees in London. The study analyses oral history narratives from Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots who have been forced to leave their home because of the inter-communal conflict of the late 1960s and the war in Cyprus in 1974. The thesis considers the relationship between first-generation and second-generation narratives and how their stories are impacted by the hegemonies of national history and memory, which are dominant storylines in Cyprus. One of the aspects that the thesis considers is the question of memory and nostalgia and how possible it is for Cypriot refugees to develop counter narratives that disrupt the nationalism of state discourse. Central to the methodology is the importance of the dialogic construction of narratives and an autoethnographic approach, through which I consider my postmemory and my family's memory of our village in Cyprus, as a third generation British Cypriot. The thesis findings are that Cypriot refugees are ambivalent about their home and their identity. I propose that the term heterogeneity can enable an understanding of peoples' multiple identifications with different places, times and cultural formations. The diverse intercommunal, cultural and social experiences in the metropolitan, London context gives rise to identity narratives that diverge frdm the dominant, powerful, institutional and political discourses in the homeland. The heterogeneous aspects of Cypriot identities extend to refugees in Cyprus as well, making it difficult to standardise the Cypriot refugee experience. This problematises research studies and thinking that essentialise and homogenise refugee identity. The thesis contributes to debates on exilic subjectivities by problematising the common assumption that refugees are singularly nostalgic for the home that they were forced to leave. The study argues that refugee identities may be subject to change, exhibiting a variety of attachments and allegiances and that Cypriot refugees and their descendents have developed diverse practices of nostalgia for home. This proposal puts into doubt the accuracy of theories of refugee identity which frame their arguments around the `amputee' model, a term I coin to describe the refugee discourse that speaks in general terms of the refugee's desire to return home