Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Conclusion

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Geography of Small Islands

  • 1105 Accesses

Abstract

Islands are considered highly vulnerable to natural hazards and external stressors due to direct exposure, limited space and insufficient resources for building social and ecological resilience . Throughout the development of the global economy, they have been instrumentalised in a territorial and strategic ping-pong game yet also come to represent important nodes in global economic and social networks . These outposts of globalisation have not just been oppressed but also made good use of their singularities and assets. A Geography of Islands is tasked with analysing the relativity and relationality of space and place . A gestaltwechsel is called for, differentiating between external island ascriptions and almost fossilised internal stereotypes such as that of victimhood. Islands are agents capable of creatively using their assets.

Les îles constituent les points nodaux des réseaux globalisés de l’antimonde.

Nathalie Bernardie-Tahir (2011): 293

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘... à grand échelle, celle-ci sont investies des nouvelles logiques de la globalisation qui prennent une part active et visible au renouvellement de la production territoriale insulaire’.

  2. 2.

    ‘[D]ont les mobilités circulatoires produisent des espaces transnationaux qui inscrivent plus que jamais les îles dans la mondialisation et, inversement, la mondialisation dans les îles’.

  3. 3.

    Human geographer Yi-Fu Tuan , well-known for his work on place -making, place attachment and topophilia, considers islands one of several ideal worlds (Tuan 1974: 247) where place can be probed as an integral part of human experience. His approaches influenced further humanist geographies (e.g. Anne Buttimer 1976, Edward Relph (1976, 1981)) and continue to have significant conceptual and practical impact today, both inside and outside geography.

  4. 4.

    For a discussion of islands as actual laboratories, see Chap. 3, Footnote 14.

  5. 5.

    ‘[L]es îles représentent autant de lieux de condensation qui nous permettent de lire et analyser la mondialisation dans ses différentes expressions. Elles offrent dans un premier temps un condensé de réseaux, réseaux techniques aériens, maritimes ou télécommunicationnels, réseaux de touristes, de migrants, de remises, d’argent propre ou sale, de pièces électroniques, de vêtements, de produits pharmaceutiques, d’informations, d’idées, de drogues, etc. Tous ces réseaux s’ajoutent, se superposent pour relier le monde à l´île qui, sur la carte, apparaît comme un point de convergence d’une infinité de lignes’.

References

  • Adams, Paul C., Steven D. Hoelscher, and Karen E. Till. eds. 2001. Textures of place: Exploring humanist geographies, 496 pp. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldacchino, Godfrey. 2004a. Moving away from the terms vulnerability and resilience in small islands. Wise coastal practices for sustainable human development forum on Thursday, 11 March 2004. Digital version available at: http://www.csiwisepractices.org/?read=490. Last accessed 2 June 2016.

  • ———. 2004b. The coming of age of Island studies. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 95 (3): 272–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Introducing a world of islands. In A world of islands. An island studies reader, ed. Godfrey Baldacchino, 1–29. Charlottetown, P.E.I/Luqa: Institute of Island Studies in collaboration with Agenda Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Island enclaves. offshoring strategies, creative governance, and subnational island jurisdictions, 301 pp. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldacchino, Godfrey, and Te’o I.J. Fairbairn, eds. 2006. ‘Small business from small islands’ thematic issue of Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 19 (4): 331–431.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernardie-Tahir, Nathalie. 2011. L’usage de l’île, 510 pp. Paris. Coll. «Des îles». Paris: Éditions Pétra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn, Sophie. 2014. The politics of scale and disaster risk governance: Barriers to decentralisation in Portland, Jamaica. Geoforum 52 (March): 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.12.013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, Neil. 2010. A thousand leaves: Notes on the geographies of uneven spatial development. In Leviathan Undone? Towards a political economy of scale, ed. Roger Keil and Rianne Mahon, 27–49. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buttimer, Anne. 1976. Grasping the dynamism of lifeworld. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 66 (2): 277–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1976.tb01090.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casey, Edward. 1993. Getting back into place: Toward a renewed understanding of the place-World, 403 pp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Citizens for Tax Justice. 2016. Offshore shell games 2016 – The use of offshore tax havens by fortune 500 companies, ed. Richard Phillips, Matt Gardner, Kayla Kitson, Alexandria Robins, and Michelle Surka. Digital version available at: http://ctj.org/pdf/offshoreshellgames2016.pdf. Last accessed 8 Feb 2017.

  • Cresswell, Tim. 2004. Place: A short introduction, 153 pp. London: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debarbieux, Bernard. 1995. Le lieu, le territoire et trois figures de rhétorique. L’Espace géographique 24 (2): 97–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ette, Ottmar. 2011. Alexander von Humboldt: Wissenschaft im Feld. Transareale Wissenschaftsfelder in den Tropen. In HiN – Alexander von Humboldt im Netz. Internationale Zeitschrift für Humboldt-Studien HiN XII (23), https://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin23/ette.htm.

  • Gaillard, Jean-Christophe, Elsa Clavé, Océane Vibert, Azhari, Dedi, Jean-Charles Denain, Yusuf Efendi, Delphine Grancher, Catherine Liamzon, Desi Sofian R. Sari, and Ryo Setiawan. 2008. Ethnic groups’ response to the 26 December 2004 earthquake and trunami in Aceh, Indonesia. Natural Hazards 47 (1): 17–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-007-9193-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, David. 1993. From space to place and back again: Reflections on the condition of postmodernity. In Mapping the futures: Local cultures, global change, ed. Jon Bird, Barry Curtis, Tim Putnam, George Robertson, and Lisa Tickner, 3–29. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996. Justice, nature, and the geography of difference, 480 pp. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2006. Space as a key word. In David Harvey: A critical reader, ed. Noel Castree and Derek Gregory, 270–293. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470773581.ch14.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hau'ofa, Epeli. 2008. We are the Ocean. Selected works, 216 pp. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, Pete. 2006. A phenomenology of islands. Island Studies Journal 1 (1): 19–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdschlag, Arnd, and Beate M.W. Ratter. 2013. Multiscale system dynamics of humans and nature in The Bahamas. Perturbation, knowledge, panarchy and resilience. Sustainable Science 8 (3): 407–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-013-0216-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horan, Thomas A. 2000. Digital places: Building our city of bits, 170 pp. Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelman, Ilan, J.C. Gaillard, James Lewis, and Jessica Mercer. 2016. Learning from the history of disaster vulnerability and resilience research and practice for climate change. Natural Hazards 82 (S1): S129–S143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2294-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The production of space, 464 pp. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malpas, Jeff E. 1999. Place and experience: A philosophical topography, 228 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martí, José. 1975. Nuestra América. In Obras Completas 6, ed. José Martí, 15–23. Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, Doreen. 1994. Space, place, and gender, 288 pp. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1995. Spatial divisions of labour, 2nd edn, 410 pp. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1997. A global sense of place. In Reading human geography, ed. T. Barnes and D. Gregory, 315–323. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. Power-geometries and the politics of space-time. Hettner-Lecture 1998, 112 pp. Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. For space, 222 pp. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mezzana, Daniele, Lorenz Aaron, and Ilan Kelman. 2012. Islands and islandness in rock music lyrics. Island Studies Journal 7 (1): 69–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moisio, Sami, and Anssi Paasi. 2013. Beyond state-centricity: Geopolitics of changing state spaces. Geopolitics 18 (2): 255–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2012.738729.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muhr, Thomas. 2017. South-South cooperation and the geographies of Latin America–Caribbean integration and development: A socio-spatial approach. Antipode 49 (4): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nash, Joshua. 2013. Insular Toponymies: Place-naming on Norfolk Island, South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula, Kangaroo Island. Culture and Language Use, 9, xiv, 302 pp. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyman, Elizabeth. 2013. Island exceptionalism and international maritime conflicts. The Professional Geographer 65 (2): 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2012.660456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perec, Georges. 2000. Espèces d’espaces, 2nd edn, 200 pp. Paris: Éditions Galilée.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratter, Beate M.W. 2007. The uniqueness of islands and the economies of place. In A world of islands. An island studies reader, ed. Godfrey Baldacchino, 522–523. Charlottetown/Luqa: Institute of Island Studies in collaboration with Agenda Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. Surprise and uncertainty – Framing regional geohazards in the theory of complexity. Humanities 2 (1): 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratter, Beate M.W., Jan Petzold, and Kamardine Sinane. 2016. Considering the locals: Coastal construction and destruction in times of climate change on Anjouan, Comoros. Natural Resources Forum 40 (3): 112–126. https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-8947.12102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Relph, Edward. 1976. Place and placelessness, 156 pp. London: Pion.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1981. Rational landscapes and humanistic geography, 231 pp. New York: Barnes and Noble.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2000. Author’s response: Place and placelessness in a new context [Classics in human geography revisited, place and placelessness] includes commentaries by John R. Gold and Mathis Stock. Progress in Human Geography 24 (4): 613–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seamon, David, and Jacob Sowers. 2008. Place and placelessness, Edward Relph, comentary. In Key texts in human geography, ed. Rob Kitchin, Gill Valentine, and Phil Hubbard, 43–51. London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Neil. 2010. Uneven development. Nature, capital, and the production of space, 328 pp. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soja, Edward W. 1980. The socio-spatial dialectic. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 70 (2): 207–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soja Edward W. 1989. Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory, 266 pp. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taglioni, François. 2006. Les petits espaces insulaires face à la vairiabilité de leur insularité et de leur statut politique. Annales de Géographie 115 (652): 664–687.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011a. Insularity, political status and small insular spaces. Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures 5 (2): 45–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011b. Fragmentation, altérité et identité dans les sociétés insulaires. L’Espace Politique [En ligne] 11(2010–2012). doi: 10.4000/espacepolitique.1634. Digital version available at: http://espacepolitique.revues.org/1634. Last accessed 9 Feb 2017.

  • Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1974. Topophilia: A study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values, 260 pp. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNCTAD – United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 2014. The oceans economy. Opportunities and challenges for small island developing states, 40 pp. New York/Geneva: United Nations. Digital version available at: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcted2014d5_en.pdf. Last accessed 9 Feb 2017.

  • UNEP – United Nations Environment Programme. 2014. Global environment outlook – GEO. Small island developing states outlook, 62 pp. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP. Digital version available at: http://www.uneplive.org/media/docs/region/59/GEO_SIDS_final.pdf. Last accessed 9 Feb 2017.

  • United Nations. 2014. SIDS accelerated modalities of action (SAMOA) pathway. General assembly, sixty-ninth session, Agenda item 13(a) A/RES/69/15. Digital version available at: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/15&Lang=E (Version: 15.12.14). Last accessed 9 Feb 2017.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Beate M. W. Ratter

  2. Institute of Coastal Research, Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht, Geesthacht, Germany

    Beate M. W. Ratter

Authors
  1. Beate M. W. Ratter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ratter, B.M.W. (2018). Conclusion. In: Geography of Small Islands. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63869-0_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation